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600009870U 







HOK^ ARAMAIC J): 



CONCIBB NOT|CEB OP THB ARAMEAN DIALECTS IN 

OBMBBAL, AUD OP THB VBRBI0N8 OF HOLY SCRIFIURB 

EXTAKT m THBM : 



A TRANSLATION 

THB GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 8T. HATTHEW, 

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, 

FROM THE ANCIENT PESCHITO SYRUC. 

B¥ J. W. ETHEBIDGE. 



LONDON ; 

PRINTED FOR THB AUTHOR : 

SOLD BY SIMFKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 

BTATtOHEKS'-HALL-COOKT ; 

AND JOHN MASON, «6, PATERNOSTER- ROW. 
HDCCCXLUI. 




/^jrzr" , ^\ \ 



LONDON : 

l>AIMTED BY JAMES NICHOLS^ 

HOXTON-SQUARB. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICES. 



A 2 



Hand (Syrkuiam) vershnem omnes emdiH prcB dliis ver- 
swmUms maximl purissimam esse statuunt et pronun- 
danty dbsque dubio ideo tarn tenaciter et fideliter 
exceptam a Sanctis hominibus, quod in hoc lingtiA 
Chrisitu locuttu et coneionatus fuerity addy ut dubium 
non sit apostolos et apostoHcos studiosissimi inquisivissey 
et conserv&sse formalia ChrisH verbay et ea in istd ver^ 
stone ponere sacrosancto quodam iabore studuisse. Quin 
et per eosdem epistolas apostohrwn in sacram linguam 
transfusas fuisse ideo feliciusy quod cum apostolis Syri 
doctores consuetudinem Ttabuerint absque dubio ere- 
briorem»mJWOLTQ* Frakzius, De Interp, Scrip,, 46. 



ON 



THE SYRIAC LANGUAGE, 



AND 



THE VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE EXTANT IN It 



t. SHEMETIC LANGUAGES. 

The region extending from the range of the 
Taurus to the coasts of the Red Sea, and between 
the course of the river Halys on the west and the 
Tigris on the east^ was once inhabited by nations 
whose languages gave the plainest evidences of a 
common derivation. Thus the people of Cappado- 
cia, Pontus, Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Pheni- 
cia, and Arabia, may have been regarded, so far as 
speech was concerned, as one great community* 
Their several dialects were, strictly speaking, but 
variations of one ancestral tongue, and have been 
grouped by philologists under the general name of 
Shemetic, (from Shem, the son of Noah,) and, 
classified, for the sake of order, into the Northern 
or Aramean, the Middle or Canaanitish, and the 
Southern or Arabic. The first class, or Aramean^ 
(from Aram, son of Shem,) is subdivided into the 

B 



2 OF THE ARAMAIC 

Eastern or Babylonian, and the Western or 
Syriac. 

The affinity which exists among all these forms 
of language is indicated, not only by an extensive 
identity of radical vords, but also by a sameness 
of grammatical developement ; as in the uniform- 
ity of their roots, (which are commonly of three 
letters and two syllables,) and the fewness of their 
primary words ; in the general rationale of the 
moods and tenses of verbs, and the copiousness of 
their conjugational forms ; in the junction of pro- 
nouns with verbs and nouns, and the employment 
of prepositions to distinguish the variations of 
case ; in the general omission of the vowels in 
their written state, and the guttural character of 
their pronunciation. In all these respects the Ara- 
mean, Canaanitish, and Arabic languages exhibit 
undeniable tokens of the same parentage. 

The similarity of the two latter classes has been 
compared to that subsisting between the Doric and 
Attic Greek, or the High and Low German of our 
own day. Indeed, some great authorities have 
affirmed that, in their most ancient and unsophis- 
ticated state, the Arabic and Hebrew had no dis- 
tinctive differences. But while this close resem- 
blance materially diminished with the lapse of time, 
the kindredship of the Hebrew and Aramaic conti- 
nued to be clearly defined, both in the manifest 
sameness of their primitive roots, and their essen- 
tial grammatical laws. On the other hand, they 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 3 

wert varied^ 1. By a difiference of pronunciation. 
The Aramaic waa more flowing and full-toned than 
the Hebrew, and its harmony rendered more com- 
plete by the emphatic okph, (&,) as a terminational 
of nouns. Thus the Hebrew, Vechoshek al penei 
thehowMt veruach Mohim, (Gren. i. 2,) would read 
in Aramaic, VachasJvowcha al-appey thehowma ve- 
rucha, 2. By the loss of some vocables of the 
parent language in the one dialect, which had been 
preserved in the other ; examples of which may 
be found in the lexicons, 

[This is also the case with the roots of numerous 
Hebrew words which are now found only in other of 
the cognate languages, and especially Arabic. For 
an example we need go no further than the first 
verse in Genesis ; in which, as Erpenius has noted, 
there are three words of this description ; namely, 
Elohim, the divine name, from the Arabic root 
alaha, *'to adore;" hcLsham&yim, "the heavens," 
from shamay "to be exalted;" and ha-aretSy "the 
earth," from arada, "to be low, deep, or de- 
pressed." Many passages in the Old Testament 
receive their expHcation from this source.] 

3. By some particular meanings of words hav- 
ing been dropped or become obsolete in the one, 
but retained in the other. 

[See Pfankuche's Dissertation on the Lan- 
guage of Palestine, sec. ii., where he instances 
in the words, matteh, matsa, and dbad. It may 
be added, that in this case, too, the Arabic 

B 2 



4 OF THE ARAMAIC 

often lends seasonable help. For the sake of ex- 
ample : Tsddak in Hebrew is " to be right or just ;*' 
but its primary meaning is that still found in the 
former language, — "to be inflexible, inflexibly 
straight, rigid ;" and in this sense it was sometimes 
employed by the inspired writers. Thus Isai. xlix, 
24 ; where, without adopting the bold verbal alter- 
ation to which Lowth and others have had recourse, 
we may read, " Shall the captive of the inexorable 
one be delivered ?" And so, perhaps, Eccles. vii, 
16 : "Be not too rigid, or severely inflexible.'*] 

4. The Eastern Aramaic had been intermixed with 
words from the language of the Chasdim, or North- 
em Chaldeans, who at a very remote period had 
over-run Mesopotamia. Of the ancient tongue of 
this people but few vestiges remain ; perhaps none 
but those which are discernible in the Babylonian. 

II. ARAMAIC ADOPTED BY THE HEBREV^TS. 

If a people were to remain stationary in sci- 
ence and the arts of life, in legislation, govern- 
ment, and rehgion, and to avoid all intercommuni- 
cation with other nations, their language would 
probably maintain a given state for ages. The 
changes, however, to which communities are sub- 
ject, from the progress of the human mind, and 
the variations of national character, the fluctuating 
relations of society, the constant succession of new 
want^ and the arts which supply them, the disced 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 5 

veries of science, and the intercourse of nations by 
conquest or commerce, — ^have all contributed to 
produce corresponding alterations in their lan- 
guage. Hence the ancient Hebrew of the Mosaic 
and prophetical scriptures, which had once been 
the living tongue of the twelve tribes, though it 
maintained its purity longer, perhaps, than any 
other language, had become, even five hundred 
years before Christ, so extensively deteriorated as to 
retain upon the lips of the people but few vestiges 
of its earlier character, and had been superseded, 
in great part, or entirely, by the Aramaic. 1. The 
immigration and settlement of Aramaic foreign- 
ers in the IsraeHtish territory, (2 Kings xvii. 24,) 
when such multitudes of its inhabitants had been 
removed into Assyria by Shalmanezer, was one cause 
which brought about this change. Those colonies 
were formed before the subversion of the Judean 
monarchy, and would necessarily have an influence 
on the language of the parts of the country in 
which they were established. 2. Another cause 
was, the subjugation of Jerusalem by Nebuchad- 
nezzar in the reign of Jehoiakim. (2 Kings xxiv. 1 .) 
This, in addition to the presence of large numbers 
of their military, (2 Kings xxiv. 2,) led to the 
appointment of Babylonians to many of the pub- 
lic offices, the use of their dialect in the transac- 
tion of such pubHc affairs as came within their 
province, and the adoption and frequent use of 
that dialect by the leading men of the time. 

B 3 



0^ 



6 OF THE ARAMAIC 

(2 Kings rviii. 26.) 3. The subsequent transporta- 
tion of the Jewish people into Babylon contributed 
to silence more entirely the ancient vernacular in 
Judea, and to render the triumph of the Aramean 
in those parts more general. 4. Finally, during 
the long exile of the Jews in Babylon, the language 
of their father-land appears to have been altogether 
laid aside ; so that those who at the termination of 
the captivity returned into Palestine, brought with 
them the dialect of Babylon as their customary 
medium of speech. Among the priesthood and 
learned men, the Hebrew had, indeed, been retain- 
ed as the language of literature and rehgion ; but 
so fuUy had it passed from the populace in general, 
that we find them, on the re-institution of public 
worship at Jerusalem, incapable of understanding 
the holy writings, except as paraphrased in Ara- 
maic. (Neh. viii. 8.) 

And this was the tongue which, with a sHght 
intermixture of Persic and Greek, (in consequence 
of the temporary dominion of the Persians and 
Macedonians in Palestine,) had prevailed from the 
period of the return from Babylon, and was still 
maintained in popular use at the opening of the 
Christian dispensation. The Jews gave it the 
name of Hebrew, by which they would intend 
either the tongue spoken beyond the Euphrates, 
(Eber han-nahar,) or, as was more consonant with 
their national pride, the language of the Hebrew 
people, — a title they had retained from the moat 



LAN6tJA6£ AND VERSIONS. 7 

early times. (Gen. xiv. 13.) We must observe, 
howcTer, that the language of the Old Testament 
is never called " Hebrew " in the Jewish or Chris- 
tian scriptures, nor does it appear that it had any- 
one specific designation. Tn 2 Kings xviii. 26, 
and 2 Chron. xxxii. 18, it is called Yehudith, lin- 
gua Judaica; and in Isai. xix. 18, Sepath Ke- 
NAAN, " the lip or speech of Canaan." But this 
was not the vernacular tongue which is called 
" Hebrew " in Josephus, Philo, or the New Testa- 
ment, as in Acts xxi. 40. That was Aramean. 
The term " Syro-Chaldaic " has been often, since 
the time of St. Jerome, employed to describe it, 
but with an impropriety manifest from the fact, that 
the true Chaldaic has long been entirely lost, and 
that if by " Chaldaic " we are to understand the 
later dialect of Babylon, its equivalence with the 
Syriac is too near to require a distinctive appella- 
tion. To denote the language of Babylon, we 
have, in the book of Ezra, the term Aramith, or 
" Aramaic ;" and from the establishment of it in 
the Holy Land under the circumstances already 
sketched, the proper designation would appear to 
be that of "Palestinian Aramaic," or Palesti- 
nian Syriac. 

That after the lapse of more than five hundred 
years, from the return from the captivity till the 
apostolic age, it was still the vernacular language 
of Judea, is a proposition which, though once 
strongly controverted by Vossius and other cmi- 



8 OP THE ARAMAIC 

nent scholars, is now generally considered to be 
placed beyond a successful denial. Though Greek 
was extensively understood in the great cities, it 
by no means displaced the common and every-day 
employment of the people's own idiom, which was 
retained in full use in the time of our Saviour 
and his apostles. 

[The objections against this, as marshalled by 
Vossius, are refuted seriatim by Father Simon, in 
his Histoire Critique du Nouveau Testament, tome 
i. c. 6. But the reader who is desirous of a com- 
plete investigation of the subject in a comparatively 
small compass, may be specially referred to the 
treatises of Professors Pfankuche and Be Bossi, 
"on the Language of Palestine in the Age of 
Christ:" in which, among other arguments lead- 
ing to the same conclusion, it is proved, — ^from 
the circumstances of the Jewish nation at that 
period, from their national peculiarities, their Ara- 
maic Targums, and from the New Testament, Jose- 
phus, and the TaLmudists, — ^that the language 
introduced, as we have seen, into Canaan some 
time before the captivity, and fully established 
there at the return of the Jews from their seventy 
years' exile, had been preserved with but few alter- 
ations under the Syro-Macedonian kings, the Mac- 
cabees, and the Eoman imperial government, and 
was substantially the common speech of the people 
at the commencement of the gospel era.] 

The PaLcstinian Syriac is a language, therefore. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 9 

pre-eminently interesting to the Christian. It was 
sanctified by the lips of the Divine Redeemer. In 
these forms of speech he conversed with the virgin- 
mother, instructed his disciples, and proclaimed to 
myriads the promises of eternal life. In them he 
gave forth those sovereign mandates which control- 
led the tempestuous elements, dispossessed the 
demoniac, brought health to the diseased, and a 
resurrection-life to the dead. In this very tongue 
we have still the words in which he taught his peo- 
ple the Prayer which calls upon the Almighty God 
as " our Father in heaven.** And, finally, it was in 
this language that he himself prayed upon earth, 
and that the Father spoke audibly to him from the 
heavens. Thus consecrated, it became a celestial 
language, a holy tongue, a chosen vehicle which 
conveyed the thoughts of the Uncreated Mind, and 
the purposes of eternal love, to the sons of men. 

Linffua Tiominum est lingua nobiliteite Dei* 
III. DIALECTS OF THE ARAMAIC. 

The Aramean language may be said, in general 
terms, to have been distinguished into the Eastern 
and Western ; but, for the sake of greater exactness, 
we may observe that it comprised the following 
Dialects; namely, 

I. The Babylonian, or pure Mesopotamian ; 
which was one of those antique Shemetic tongues 



10 OF THE ARAMAIC 

that were eo-eval with the postdiluvian nations. 
Nor is it at all improbable, that it had been trans- 
mitted, through the family of Noah, from the pa- 
triarchs before the flood. It was brought from 
Babylon, as we have seen, by the Jews on their 
restoration from exile, and formed the base of the 
vernacular language spoken in Judea in the time 
of our Saviour. 

II. The Palmyrene ; of which, however, no 
specimens are now extant, except such scanty 
fragments as are contained in the Palmyrian in- 
scriptions ; for an account of which we may refer 
to such works as Les Ruines de Palmyre, London, 
1753 ; the Abb^ Barthelemy's Rejieanons sur 
r Alphabet et sur la Langue dont on se servoit 
autrefois a Palmtfre, in the Memoires de VAcad. 
des Inscriptions, tom. xxvi. ; and the Palestina of 
the learned Beland, page 526« 

III. The Antiochian ; or that which prevailed 
in Comagene and the northern districts of Syria. 
One of the main points that distinguished this 
dialect from the Eastern Araxuaic, was the inflection 
of the future tense of their verbs. 

IV. The HiEROSOLYMiTAN, or dialect of Jeru- 
salem and the surrounding country. This in foun- 
dation was genuine Aramaic, with no substantial 
alteration since the first introduction of it from 
Babylon. Nor had its grammatical character been 
subject to greater modifications. It had received, 
indeed, various additions from foreign words, as 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 11 

well Western as Oriental ; but these, whfle they 
had given it greater copiousness and power, had 
by no means destroyed the older idiom. The 
dialect of Judea was regarded as purer than that 
of the more distant provinces, and was distin- 
guished by a greater degree of correctness in the 
pronunciation. Many of its characteristical words 
have been set down by Professor Adler, in his 
Versiones Syriacce, 

V. The Galilean ; which was held but in low 
estimation, as the speech of a people proverbially 
illiterate and rude. It abounded in barbarous 
contractions, and was easily detected, not only by 
its slovenly pronunciation of the gutturals olaph, 
he, cheth, and ee, but by such a separation of the 
syllables of some words, and a blending together 
of others, as to render them, to all but a Galilean, 
unintelligible. 

VI. The Samaritan dialect consisted of an 
Aramaic basis, with a commixture of Hebrew, 
Cuthite, and other exotic terms. This is easily 
accounted for by a reference to the history 
of the original colonists, 2 Kings xvii. In pro- 
nunciation, it is said to have been akin to the 
Galilean. 

VII. There was also the Syrophenician, or 
Phenidan Aramaic, which was spoken on the coast 
of the Mediterranean. It was considerably amplified 
by Hellenistic and Latin words ; but, as in the 
case of the Palmyrean, we are in possession of no 



12 OF THE ARAMAIC 

remains of it, except a few numismatic and monu-' 
mental inscriptions. 

Among the Jews who lingered in Palestine after 
the destruction of their national polity, the Eastern 
Aramaic was long retained as a living tongue* 
St. Jerome tells us, that in one part of his biblical 
labours, he had the assistance of a Jew who spoke 
it with fluency. Even in the present day it exists 
as a rude vernacular, in the neighbourhood of 
Mosul and Diarbekkir.^ The Antiochian Syriac, 
though, subsequently to the establishment of the 
Mohamedan power in Syria, it gradually gave 
place to Arabic, has never passed away entirely as 
a spoken language, but is still used about Edessa, 
Harran, and the Libanus.^ 

IV. STUDY OP ARAMAIC. 

Before we advance farther with these brief out- 
lines, it will not be unacceptable to some who may 

^ A certam patois, or corrupt mixture of Syriac and Chal- 
dee, still obtains among the peasantry, or Nabayoth, and is 
thence called the Nabathean. — See Malte B&uif's Asia. 

* ^'At the convent of Kashheyay near the village Ekden^ 
is a printing-office, where Prayer-books in the Syriac lan- 
guage are printed. This language is known and spoken by 
many Maronites in this district (Tripoli)." — ^Burkbardt's 
Syria. 

At the convent of Ayn Warka, (in the library of which 
M. Burkhardt saw a beautiful MS. Dictionary of the Syriac 
language, by Kerem Seddany, written about 1619,) there is 
a school where boys are educated for the priesthood; and 
&ught to speak and write the Syriac,— Ibid, 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 13 

be interested in the subject, to mention the most 
advantageous helps for the attainment of this 
valuable branch of theological learning. On the 
motives to such a study, it is not our intention to 
expatiate. While to many persons it presents 
nothing that is attractive, there are others who are 
stimulated to the undertaking by serious and 
powerful impulses, and at length find their re- 
ward in its accomplishment. With those, indeed, 
who deny the propriety or the right of judging for 
one's self on the meaning of inspired scripture, 
considering it their duty rather to receive and, if 
invested with the sacred office, to retail the 
untested interpretations of others, a knowledge of 
the bibhcal languages may be consistently held in 
inferior estimation. But the man of clearer views, 
and a judgment better balanced, — ^the Christian, 
of liberal education, who, as an inquirer after 
divine truth, finds himself possessed of means and 
opportunities for ascending to its nearer contem- 
plation in this manner, — ^will count it a personal 
duty to employ them ; and he, especially, on whom 
rests the responsibility of declaring to mankind 
*'the whole counsel of God," will hardly, if in 
similar circumstances, content himself without 
the acquisition of that practical measure of this 
sacred lore, which will at once unseal so many 
fountains of exalted pleasure to his own mind, and 
render him for others '' a workman that needetb 

c 



14 OF THE ARAMAIC 

not to be ashamed^ rightly dividing the word of 
truth." (2 Tim. ii. 15.) 

If it be one of the dictates of common reason, 
that the interpreter of a book ought to understand 
the tongue in which it is written, on what princi- 
ple shall we apologize for the contempt, that, by 
the authorized neglect of it, even in our greatest 
seats of learning, is thrown upon the language in 
which the Divine Spirit indited nearly all the 
scriptures of the Old Covenant, and which, (since 
it is now universally confessed, that the entire 
texture of the writings of the holy evangelists 
and apostles is Oriental, or, more particularly, 
Hebraistic,) has given an indelible character to the 
records of the New Testament itself? 

But, not to detain the reader with this class of 
considerations, — ^they who have persevered in the 
study of Hebrew with some measure of practical 
success, should be reminded, that an acquaintance 
with the Aramean dialects (commonly known by 
the names of Chaldee and Syriac) will both greatly 
contribute to advance and mature that of the Old- 
Testament language, and remunerate the toil in- 
curred in the attainment of them, by strengthen- 
ing the intellectual faculties, and conferring a title 
to the mines of biblical knowledge which are 
included in them. To any one, therefore, who, 
having become tolerably well-grounded in Hebrew, 
may be desirous of going forward to the Aramaic, 
and to whom the several voluminous Bibliographi- 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 15 

cal Directories are not accessible, we beg to offer the 
following memoranda of works adapted to the study. 
I. Chaldee Grammars. 

1. ^^ Elements of the Chaldee Language, in- 
tended as a Supplement to the Hebrew Grammars, 
and as a general Introduction to the Arameau 
Dialects." By the Rev. W. Harris, LL.D. 
London, 1822. This is a portable, cheap, and 
comprehensive manual. 

2. "An Introduction to Chaldee Grammar; in 
which the Grenius of the Language is explained by 
a new and simple Principle of Analysis." By the 
Rev. Dr. Nolan. London, 1821. 12mo. 

3. Rigge's (Elias, M.A.) "Manual of the Chal- 
dee Language" (Boston, Mass. 1832) is a valuable 
compendium: it consists, (1.) Of a grammar, 
chiefly from the Grerman of Professor Winer ; 
(2.) A chrestomathy, or hand-book for self-tuition, 
containing the whole of the Chaldee found in the 
Old Testament with notes ; and selections from 
the Targums; (3.) A vocabulary adapted to the 
chrestomath ; and, (4.) An appendix on the Rab- 
binical character and style. 

4. Altingii Synopsis Institutionum Chaldaic, 
cum Adnot, Joh, Simonis. Halse, 1749. 

5. HiRTii, J. F., Bihliorum analyticorum pars 
Chaldaica, pramissd Introductione ad Chaldaismum 
biblicum, Jenae, 1757. 

6. MiCHAELis, J. D., — Grammatica Chaldaica, 
Gottingen, 1771. 

c 2 



16 OF THfi ARAMAIC 

II. Chaldee Lexicons. 

1 . The Chaldee and Syriac Lexicon of Buxtorf. 
4to. 1622. But especially, 

2. BuxTORFii, Johannis, Lexicon Chaldaicum, 
Talmvdicum, et Rabbinicum, in folio. Basil, 1640. 
This was the fruit of thirty years' labour. " There 
is no other work," says Professor Turner, " which 
can be substituted in its place." 

III. Syriac Grammars. 

1. That of Yeates, London, 1819, is well 
adapted to the New Testament, from which the 
examples are mostly selected. 

2. Phillip's (Rev. G., FeUow and Tutor of 
Queen's College, Cambridge) Elements of Syriac 
Grammar. Svo. 

3. Nolan, Rev. F., LL.D. — " An Introduction 
to the Syriac Language j in which the Genius of 
the Language is explained by a new and ample 
Principle of Analysis." London, 1821. 

3. ScHAAF, Car. — Opus AramcsuMy complet- 
tens Grammaticam Chaldaicam et SyricLcam, selecta 
ex Targumimy cum Versione Latind, necnon Lexicon 
Chaldaicum, 12mo. Lugd. Bat. 1686. The 
Syriac here is printed in the Hebrew character. 

5. MiCHAELis, C. Benedict. — Syriasnma ; i, e. 
Grammatica lAngues Synacce, cum Fundamentis 
necessariis, turn Paradigmatibus plenioribus, turn 
denique ubere Syntaad, et Idiomatibus Lingua, in- 
atructa, 4to. Halse Magdeburgicse, 1741. Valu- 
able both as to arrangement and examples. The 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 17 

Grammatica Syriaca of John David Michaelis 
{Aio, Halse, 1784) is substantially the same with 
this one^ but somewhat altered and enlarged. 

6. Jahn, Dr. J. — Elementa Aramaicce seu 
Chaldceo-Syriacce Lingtbce. Viennse, 1820. This 
was first published in German^ and rendered into 
Latin by Oberleitner. 

7. Hoffman. — Grammatica Syriaca Libri Hi. 
Cum tribtis Tabulis varia Scriptura Aramaica 
genera exhibentibus. 4to. Halle. 1827. Besides 
these, there are several other compendiums in 
Latin, which, though now superseded, had once a 
considerable reputation, and may still be consulted 
with advantage : as Dilher's " Syriac Grammar ;" 
Leusden's Schola Syriaca, 1682; and the Aditu& 
Syria of Dansius. 1689. 

IV. Syriac Lexicons. 

1 . Trost, Martin. — Lexicon Syriacum : ex In- 
dtuctione omnium Exemplarium N, T, Syr. adoma- 
tum ; adjecta singulorum Vocabulorum Signijicatione 
Latind et Germanicd, cum Indice triplici. 4to, 
1623. The pronouns and particles are wanting 
in this work. 

2. GuTBiR, ^gidius. — Lexicon Syriacum : con^ 
tinens omnes N. T. Syr. Bictiones et Particulas, ^c. 
16mo. Hamburg, 1667. A portable dictionary 
which is generally found vdth the excellent edition 
of the New Testament, published by Gutbir, who 
was Professor of Oriental Languages at Hamburg. 
A neat and improved edition of this Lexicon was 

c 3 



18 or THE ARAMAIC 

given by Dr. Ebenezer Henderson, in 1836, from 
the press of Messrs. Bagster. 

3. ScHAAF, Carol. — Lexicon Syriacum Concor- 
dantiale, omnes N, T. Syr, Voces, et ad harum Ulus- 
trationem multas alias Syriacas et Linguarum affi- 
nium Dictiones complectens. 4to. Lugd, 1709. A 
most excellent work, which answers the purpose of 
a Concordance as well as Lexicon. It is fiimished 
also with complete and convenient indices. 

4. Castel, Dr. Edmund. — -In the Heptaglott 
Lexicon. The Syriac portion of this vast work 
was edited in a separate quarto volume, at Gottin- 
gen in 1788, by MichaeHs. This part of Castel's 
Lexicon is characterized by Schaff as copiosissim^ 
accuratissim^que. 

5. Zanolini (Professor of Oriental Languages 
at Padua) Lexicon Syriacum : Voces omnes quce in 
N. T. Translatione Syr, inveniuntur complectens, 
Accedit ejusdem Disputatio de Idngud Syr,, Versio- 
nibtis Syr, et Maronitis quibus pradpuh mine Lin- 
gua Syriaca in Usu est. 4 to. Patavii, 1742. 

V. Harmonies, for the joint study of the 
Hebrew and Aramaic languages. 

1 . Walton, Bishop. — Introductio ad Lectionem 
Linguarum Orientalium, 24mo. 1655 : contains 
the first steps to the correct reading of Hebrew, 
Chaldee, and Samaritan ; Syriac, Arabic, and Per- 
sian ; Ethiopic, Armenian, and Coptic.^ 

3 Of this interesting and scarce manual the present writer 
begs to announce an English translation, which is nearly 
ready for publication. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 19 

2. De Dieu, Louis. — Grammatica Linguarum 
Orientalium, 4to. Francfort, 1683. 

3. They who possess the Heptaglott Lexicon of 
Caste L, will naturally have recourse to his Har- 
monia brevis et perpetua, prefixed to that work ; 
but it is to be regretted that the obscure and 
almost chaotic manner in which large portions of 
it have been executed, has materially diminished 
its usefulness as a grammar. 

4. BucHER, Samuel Frederic, Professor at Wir- 
temburg. — Thesaurus Orientis : sive compendiosa 
et facilis Methodus Linguarum HebrcecB, Chaldao- 
TargumiccBi Talmudico-Rahbinicte, Syrice^ Sama- 
ritancBf Arabicce^ et Persica, Small 4to. Frank- 
fort, 1725. 

5. Sennertus, Andrew. — Centuria Canonum 
Fhilologicorum de Idiotismis Linguarum Orien- 
talium. 

6. Masclef, Francis. — Grammatica Hebraica 
a Punctis aliisque inventis Massoretheiis libera, 
Accesserunt tres Grammaticce, Chaldaica, Syriaca, 
et Samaritana, ejusdem Instituti, Two vols. 8vo. 
Paris, 1731. 

7. Kals, J. G. — Grammatica HebrcBO-Harmo- 
nica, cum Arabicd et Aramad, Metkodo logico- 
fnathematicd, ^c. Svo. Amsterdam, 1758. This 
valuable compendium compresses, as the author 
tells us, the substance of the grammatical works 
of Alting, Buxtorf, Beveridge, Bucher, Chappelov- 
vius, Dantzius, Erpenius, Gerhard, Hsesaeus^ Kool- 
hasius^ Martin, and several others. 



20 OF THE ARAMAIC 

YI. Readers. 

1. "The Chaldee text of Daniel, Clmp. v.; 
and the Syriac of St. Matthew, Chap, vi.. Verses 
1 — 13 ; analysed, for the Use of Students. By 
the Rev. T. R. Brown, M. A. Parker, London." 

2. FaUestra Linguarum Orientalium ; Cura 
Georgii Othonis. Frankfort, 1702. Otho was 
Teacher of Languages at Marhurg. His work con- 
sists of the first four chapters of Genesis, in the 
text, (1.) Of the original Hebrew; (2.) The Tar- 
gums of OnkeloB, Jonathan, and Jerusaleni ; (3.) In 
Syriac ; (4.) Samaritan ; (5.) Arabic ; (6.) Ethio- 
pic ; and, (7.) Persian. Each of these is accom* 
panied by a Latin version, and a vocabulary. 

3. Arabisches, Syrisches, und Chaldaisches Lese^ 
huchf von Dr. Fred. Theodor. Rink, und Jo. S. 
Vater. 8vo. Leipzig, 1802 : consists of Selec- 
tions from the Chaldee Targums, the Syriac Old 
and New Testament, the History of Abulpharagius, 
and an eastern Hturgy. These are followed by a 
vocabulary in Aramaic and German. The remain- 
der of the volume is devoted to an Arabic Delectus, 
from the holy Scriptures and Alcoran, with a con- 
cise vocabulary. 

To these works may be added the Chrestomathys 
of RoDiGER, one vol. 8vo ; and Oberleitner^ 
two vols. 8vo. 1826. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 21 



V. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ARAMAIC. 

1. In proceeding to consider the versions of 
holy scripture which are extant in this language, 
the natural order will lead us first to those of the 
Old Testament. This was first printed in Syriac 
by Le Jay, in the magnificent Paris Polyglott, 
under the superintendence of Dr. Gabriel Sionita, 
a learned Maronite, and some time Professor of 
Oriental Languages at Rome, who supplied^ by 
translating firom the Latin Vulgate^ the deficiencies 
of the Syriac text. Bishop Walton next printed 
it, in the London Polyglott, with various correc- 
tions, and the addition of the apocryphal books of 
Judith, Tobit, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, the 
Legends of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon, the 
Canticle of the three Children, and the second and 
third books of Maccabees. But the edition of the 
Old Testament at once preferable and more easy of 
access, is that published in 1 823, in quarto, by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, under the care 
of the eminent Orientalist, Dr. Lee, who collated 
the old editions with a valuable Indian manuscript 
of Dr. Buchanan, another, then in the possession 
of Dr. Adam Clarke, and a third belonging to the 
University of Oxford. 

2. There is great reason to conclude that this 
version of the Old Testament was made from the 
Hebrew, though not without frequent reference to 



22 OF THE ARAMAIC 

the Seventy, and, in the books of Moses, to the 
Samaritan Pentateuch. From the manifest skill of 
the interpreter in Hebrew, and the natural relation 
between that language and the Syriac, the transla- 
tion is often strikingly correct and happy. It is 
not, however, exempt from faults ; some by the 
translator himself, and others from the ignorance 
or oversight of copyists, who have often confounded 
letters that have a similarity of form in Eastern 
alphabets, and in many passages have put one pro* 
per name for another. In the Book of Psalms the 
author of the version has taken the Uberty of omit- 
ting the ancient titles, and of substituting others 
in their room, which answer the purpose of short 
summaries of contents. 

3. Of the precise age of this version nothing 
certain has been determined. The Syrian churches, 
whether Maronite, Nestorian, or Jacobite, who hold 
it in great veneration, claim for it an improbable 
antiquity, in asserting that some parts of it were 
executed in the time of Solomon, for the use of 
Hiram, king of Tyre, and the remainder under the 
auspices of Abgarus, king of Edessa.^ We may 
be sure that a work of such magnitude must have 
required a considerable period for its accomplish- 
ment; and the greater likelihood is, that it was 
undertaken not long after the commencement of 
the Christian era. Jahn affirms that it must have 

* Walton, Prolegom. xiii. sect. 15. Abu! Pharai, 
Hist, Arab,, p. 184, ap, PococK£. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 23 

been made, at the latest, in the second century; 
and Michaelis, at the end of the first, or the begin- 
ning of the second. It is frequently referred to by 
Origen in the third century ; ^ and in the fourth 
by St. Basil^ and St. Ambrose,^ St. Procopius,® 
St. Theodoret,® St. Chrysostom,^ and St. Augus- 
tine,2 and in some of the writings of St. Ephrem 
the Syrian. The probable conjecture is, that the 
author was a Christianized Hebrew: a Jew by 
birth, as may be inferred from the extreme scarce- 
ness of Hebrew learning in the Christian commu- 
nity at that period ; (Conf, Euseb., E. H., 1. yi. 
c. 16 ; S. HiERON., Cat. Scriptt. EccL, in Orig, ;) 
but a Jew converted to Christianity, as appears by 
various indications in the work itself, particularly 
in the breviaries prefixed, as before observed, to the 
Psalms. Thus in the titles of the Messianic Psalms 
such allusions as the following are undoubtedly 
Christian : Psalm xvi. — " Of David. The Election 
of the Church, and the Resurrection of Meshi- 
cha." Psalm xxii. — " Of David when derided by 
his Persecutors ; and concerning the Passion of 
Meshicha, and the Calling of the (Jentiles." And 
Psabn xlv. — " Spoken to the B'nai-Kurach in the 

' MoNTFAUCOM', PrisHm, in Hexapl, Orig., cap. i. 
sect. 7- 
^ Horn, u in Hexaem, ad Gen, i. 2. 
7 A MB., Hex€Lem,y lib. i. cap. 8. ® In Exod, xxii. 

® In JofiM. iii., et Psall, civ., cxiii., cxvi. 
^ In PsaL xciv., et Heb, xi. * Civit, Dei., xv, 13* 



24 OF THE ARAMAIC 

days of Mushe. The Manifestation of Meshicha, 
and the glorious Power of Adonai.'* 

As made then from the Hebrew,^ and evidently 
by an able hand, this ancient version may be 
regarded as a valuable instrument in ascertaining 
the state of the original text of the Old Testament 
in the second century. 

There was a version also of the Old Testament 
made about the seventh century, which is some- 
times caUed the Syro-Estrangelo. This is 
believed to have been executed from the Hexapla- 
Greek of Origen ; but by whom, — whether Mar 
Abba, an Oriental primate, James of Edessa, Paul, 
bishop of Tola, or Thomas of Harkel, — is a matter 
of dispute. A portion only of it has survived to 
the present time. The learned Andrew Masius, in 
the preface to his comment on the Book of Joshua, 
speaks of his having then in his possession a manu- 
script of it, containing the books of Deuteronomy, 
Joshua, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, Judith, 
and Tobit. But the £Eite of this document is now 
altogether unknown. Another portion of the 
Syro-Estrangelo has, however, been preserved in 
the Ambrosian Library at Milan, including the 
books of Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Can- 
ticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Hosea, Amos, Habak- 

' Versio Syra^ qua mUgo Syri omnes utuntur, ex Hebro' 
ico facta estf omniumque versUmum Orientalium est anti- 
qui88ima,^^KEiifAVD0T, apud Nolan on the Greek Vulgate, 
p. 401. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 25 

kuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Jere^ 
miah, Daniel, and Isaiah. This manuscript transla* 
tion, according to the epigraph at the end, was made 
from an exemplar of the Septuagint which Euse- 
bius had corrected from the mss. of Origen depo- 
sited in the library at Cesarea.* It has the cha- 
racter of being a faithful translation of th^ 
Seventy ; agreeing exactly with the latter in the 
places in which that version differs from the 
Hebrew. The text is distinguished also by the dia- 
critical marks adopted by Origen in the Hexapla. 
The Milanese ms. has been given to the world in 
various parts at different times, as foUow : (I .) The 
first Psalm, by De Rossi. Parma, 1778.^ (2.) 
Daniel, by Bugati. Milan, 1786. (3.) Jeremiah 
and Ezekiel, by Norberg. 4to. London, 1787. 
(4.) The Book of Psalms. Milan, 1816. (5.) The 

* ** Descriptus est et effictus ex exemplarx Eusebii et Pam- 
phUL Ad ejus scilicet normam quod ipsi emend&runi ex 
bibliothecA Origenis.** 

^ Specimen inedita et Hexaplaris Bibliorum VersUmis 
SyrfhEstranghekBy cum simplici atque utriusque FantUms 
Graco et Hebrao coUaiay cum duplici Latin& Versione et 
Notts, Edidity ao DieUribam de rarissimo Codice Ambrosi- 
anoy unde illud haustum est, prcBmisit Johannes Bern. Rossi. 
Parmay 1778. 8vo. ''This specimen consists of the first 
Psahn, printed in six columns : the first contains the Greek 
text of the LXX. ; the second, the Syro-Estrangelo text ; the 
third, the Latin text translated from the LXX. ; the fourth, 
the Hebrew text ; the fifth, the Peschito or old Syriac text ; 
and the sixth, the Latin text translated from this latter ver- 
sion."— Rev. T. H. HoBNE's " Introduction," &c., ii. 47. 

D 



26 OF THE ARAMAIC 

books of Kings and Chronicles, Isaiah, the twelve 
minor Prophets, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, 
Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes, by Middledorf. 
Berlin, 181 6.« 

VI. OLD TESTAMENT IN ARAMAIC : THE 

TARGUMS. 

The Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch 
may, without impropriety, be classed among the 
Aramaic versions of Old-Testament scripture. It 
has a claim upon this high distinction, inasmuch 
as it does not partake of the looseness of style, 
and extensive intermixture with interpolated mat- 
ter, peculiar to the other Chaldee paraphrases ; 
but exhibits a generally close and faithM verbal 
translation f^om the original Hebrew into good 
Aramaic. 

[The word Targum means literally an "inter- 
pretation : " it comes from a verb which signifies 
** to expound or declare," and is appHcable to a 
translation or interpretation of any kind. Hence 
the work of Tawusius, the translator of the Pen- 
tateuch into Persian, is caUed the "Persic Tar- 
gum : " indeed, the Jews gave the same name to 
the Septuagint and other versions. The dates of 
the principal Chaldee Targumim are involved in 

^ Codex Syriac(hHexaplari8. Edidit H. Middledorf. 
two tomes, 4to, the second of which contains a critical com- 
mentary. 



LANGUAGE AND TERSIONS. 27 

much obscurity. At the restoration of the Jewish 
worship at Jerusalem after the captivity, (as before 
said,) it was found necessary, in the pubhc reading 
of the Law, to render the Hebrew into popukr 
Aramaic ; the former being no longer the vernacu- 
lar tongue. Thus we are told, that "while the 
people stood in their place, the Levites read in the 
book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the 
sense, and caused them to understand the read- 
ing." (Neh. viii. 7, 8.) This was probably done 
after the same manner which it is certainly known 
obtained in the synagogues in times not long after ; 
by reading one of the pesukiniy or verses, of the 
lesson, at a time, and rendering it into Chaldee, 
with such glosses or expositions of terms as were 
deemed requisite. But at what period these oral 
interpretations were first committed to writing, no 
one can teU. There is a probable opinion, that 
some record was made of them at no great interval 
from the introduction of the practice, and that the 
best of the present Targums are based upon an 
earher text. It may not be iminteresting to set 
down here a short notice of the several works of 
this kind now extant. These are ten in aU: of 
which, 

I. Three are on the Pentateuch. 

1. That of Onkelos, whom some make to have 
been a native of Babylon, and a proselyte to Juda- 
ism, a little before the time of our Saviour ; others 
identify him with the Babbi Akiba in the second 

D 2 



28 OF THE ARAMAIC 

century; and others with the Greek translator, 
Aquila. A Jewish tradition represents him as the 
son of the sister of Titus, the emperor. Whoever 
the author was, the version itself, known by the 
name of Onkelos, is justly esteemed as a valuable 
monument of the Aramaic language, and a, gene- 
rally speaking, sound translation of the Mosaic 
writings. This Taxgum was translated into Latin 
by Alfonso de Zamora, Fagius, Baldus, and Andrew 
de Leon, of Zamora. 

2. That by the Pseudo Jonathan ; thus denomi- 
nated, because once erroneously attributed to an 
eaxher and better paraphrast, Jonathan, the son of 
Uzziel ; whereas the Targum Pseudo Jonathan, as 
appears from many incidental proofs in the work 
itself, could not have been compiled before the 
seventh or eighth century. The language, is a 
comparatively modem and barbarized dialect, and 
the metaphrase of the sacred text degraded by the 
insertion of fabulous episodes. The Latin trans- 
lation is by Chevalier. 

3. The HiERosoLYMiTAN, or Targum Yerush- 
lemey ; which consists only of detached parts of 
the Pentateuch, written in a corrupt style, which 
is intermixed with words from the Persian, Greek, 
and Latin. The disjointed character of its con- 
tents gives countenance to the opinion stated by 
Bishop Walton, (Proleg. xii. sect. 3,) that this work 
is a collection, or compilation, from other writings. 
From a variety of passages, it would seem that the 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 29 

New Testament itself had been laid under contri- 
bution. Nor is it at all unlikely^ that many of 
the correspondences which some expositors have 
been fond of pointing out between the phraseology 
of the apostles, and even of our Lord himself, and 
the writings of the Rabbinists, owe their existence 
to means of the same kind. The Latin version of 
the Jerusalem Targum is by M. Chevalier and 
Francis Taylor. 

IL On the former and latter prophets, (ex- 
cepting Daniel,) we have the Taxgum of Jonathan 
Ben Uzziel ; usually believed to have been a disci- 
ple of Simeon the Just, (Luke ii. 25,) and a fel- 
low-student with Gamaliel, the preceptor of St. 
Paul, (Acts xxii. 3,) in the school of that cele- 
brated teacher. His work is considered to have 
embodied the sense of the primitive Targumim 
and of long-descended traditions, which were held 
in the synagogue between the days of Nehemiah 
and the Christian epoch.^ It opens many views of 
the prophetic scriptures relating to the Messiah, 
of great theological value, as demonstrating the 
doctrines of modem Judaism on that subject, to 
be contrary to the faith of the ancient Hebrew 

^ Buxtorf has well characterized this Targum in a few 
words : In propheiis prioribus turn in sermone turn in re 
simplex est; in posierioribiis qui paulo obscuriores paulo 
liberior sit, et allegoriis nimis indtUgens, Hoc etiam in ipso 
laudandum quod plurimos locos de Messid non ita explicate 
scriptos, ipse sensu sane Christiano de Messid exponiU 
PrcBf, ad Lex, Cludd, et Syr, 

D 3 



so OF THE ARAMAIC 

Church. The Latin translation is by Alfonso 
de Zamora, and Emanuel Tremellius. 

III. On the Ketubim, or Hagiographa ; that 
is, the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, 
Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, (Daniel,®) Ezra, 
Nehemiah, and the two books of Chronicles, 
there is a Taxgum in the same style of barbarism 
and fondness for the imaginary, as that of Jerusa- 
lem. This paraphrase is usually attributed to a 
certain Jos^, or Joseph, sumamed "the Blind," 
who was head of a Rabbinical school at Sora, in 
the third century. But some critics regard it 
as the production of more authors than one. It 
was translated into Latin by Zamora, Tremellius, 
and Arias Montanus. 

IV. On the Megilloth ; that is, Ecclesiastes, 
Canticles, Lamentations, Ruth, and Esther; there 
is another, which has been referred to the sixth 
century. 

On the book of Esther, there are three Targums, 
which, like another upon the books of Chronicles, 
are of uncertain, though evidently not ancient, date. 

It appears that, beside these, there were once 
other writings of the same description, which are 
no longer extant. Of this class was a Targum on 
the Prophets and Hagiographa, by R. Akilas, a 
Jewish proselyte under the emperor Antoninus, 
from which there are frequent citations in the 
talmudical book called Bereshith Rahha, 

^ On this prophet there is uo Targum. 



LANOtJAGE AND VERSIONS. 31 

The Jews attach great importance to the works 
of Oukelos, and Jonathan Ben Uzziel ; they esteem 
them to have been written by inspiration, and 
refer to many traditionary miracles to substantiate 
their authority. Among Christian divines, the 
Targums have not, perhaps, been put so fully to 
the test of utility as they deserve, — serving, as 
they do, to bear witness to the integrity of the 
Hebrew scriptures ; to fix the meaning of words 
which either occur but once, or which may have 
divers significations ; to perpetuate a striking 
series of testimonies to the old belief in the exist- 
ence, personality. Godhead, and mediatorial agency, 
of Him, whose name is The Word of God, and 
the Christian import of the prophecies respecting 
the Messiah ; to explicate difficult places both in 
the letter and purport of the sacred text ; and to 
illustrate not a few of the customs, ceremonies, 
and peculiar opinions of the Hebrew people.^ 

• See Du Pin, Dissert, Preliminaire sur la Bible, liv. i. 
C.8. Walton, Proleg.x. Horke, IntTod.,voLii. Pictet, 
La Theol, ChreL, torn. i. liv. i. c. 26. 

The completest collection of the Targums is found in the 
London, Antwerp, and Paris Polyglots. But some of them 
have been printed separately, by various editors ; as Onkelos. 
Venice, I747, 4to. On Job, Franeker, 1663, 4to. Canti- 
cles and Ecclesiastes, Basil, 1553, 8vo. Ruth, Paris, 1564, 
4to. Chronicles, August. Vindel. 1 680, two vols. 4to ; and 
another edition at Cambridge^ l?!?? in 4to. All these have 
Latin translations. 



32 OF THE ARAMAIC 



VII. ARAMAIC VERSIONS OF THE NEW 

TESTAMENT. 

Of the New Testament there are two principal 
versions in Syriac, the Peschito and the Philoxenian. 
The translations into English of the Gospel of St. 
Matthew, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, sub- 
mitted in the present volume, are from the former, 
which is by far the more ancient and important ; 
and to which the special attention of the reader is 
invited in this essay. But, before we proceed to 
the consideration of it, we may advantageously 
devote a short time to the latter, as well as to 
another though fragmentary version, which has 
been found in the Palestino-Syriac. 

The Philoxenian version was accomplished 
in the early part of the sixth century. It was 
projected by Philoxenus, or Xenayas, a bishop of 
Mabug, or Hierapohs.^ His object appears to 
have been the production of a literally verbatim 
translation of the Greek Testament from what were 
considered the best exemplars then extant, which 
were careftilly collated for that purpose. These 
manuscripts have perished for ages ; but it is not 
without good reason that the critics have regarded 
this version as an exact reflection of them. They 
were mss. of the recension afterwards distin- 

* Mabug, in the north of Syria, near the Euphrates ; it is 
now called Bambouch, or Mambedj. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 33 

guished as the "Alexandrine," the text of which 
had been revised and published under the super- 
intendence of Eusebius, of Cesarea.^ 

The individual whom Philoxenus employed on 
this important work, was his own ehorepiscopos, 
Polycarp ; who so folly entered into, perhaps 
exceeded, the design of his principal, as to have 
rendered the translation not onl^ literal, but in 
some respects barbarous. He seems to have been 
determined that not the smallest particular of the 
original should disappear in his representation of 
it. An idea of his manner may be given by such 
cases as the following. 1. Hebrew proper names 
axe so conformed to the Greek orthography, as to 
destroy their Oriental character ; thus throwing 
aside an advantage which a version of scripture 
in this language especially offers, of exhibiting an 
accurate delineation of their ideal value. 2. He 
sacrifices the grammatical construction of the 
Syriac for that of the Greek. 3. He sometimes 
expresses the syllables of composite Greek words 
by separate terms in his own language,^ to the 
distortion of the meaning of the former. 4. Un- 
willing that any part of the original should be lost, 
he has minutely preserved the particles, even when 
used, according to the Greek idiom, expletively. 

^ EusEB. Life of Constantine, book iv. c. 36 ; Nolak 
on the Greek Vulgate, 26, &c. 

3 As Shaphiruth decheliho, " the beauty of fear," for the 
Greek evae^io, '< godliness." 



34 OF THE ARAMAIC 

5. In Syriac, a separate article is not employed^ 
the status emphaticus of nouns being generally an 
equivalent for it ; but, on the principle of literal 
accuracy, the Philoxenian translator, to express 
the Greek article, has used the pronouns hau^ hxdy 
enun, and holerty just as iste and ille are employed 
in the lower Latin. 6. He attempts to model Syriao 
nouns by the tenninational inflexions of the Greek 
cases. 7. He preserves the import of the Greek 
diminutives. 8. He incorporates Greek words by 
merely writing them in Syrian characters. 9. 
Those terms in the Greek which are given as expla* 
natory of Syriac or Hebrew ones, he renders back 
again, in a manner which, while it appears suffi- 
ciently absurd, shows, nevertheless, the resolute 
scrupulosity of the translator. Hence, though the 
intrinsic worth of the PhUoxenian version admits 
of no comparison with that of the Peschito, yet 
the former, as Michaelis remarks, *^ is not devoid 
of value ; and is of real importance to a critic 
whose object is to select a variety of readings with 
the view of restoring the genuine text of the Greek 
original : for he may be folly assured that every 
phrase and expression is a precise copy of the 
Greek text as it stood in the manuscript £rom 
which the version was made." * 

The same eminent philologist observes also, that 
*nhe Syriac language, which appears in perfect 

* MiCHAELis Introd. N. T,, c. vii, sect. U. 



LANGt7AG£ AND TERStOKS. 35 

purity in the old version, is intermixed in the 
Philoxenian with a variety of Greek words, which 
render it unpleasing ; and their diversity of style 
betrays not only a distance of time, but a difference 
of place. The intermixture of Greek words is not 
only such as is found in the later Syriac writers, 
especially Bar-Hebrseus, but the translator appears 
to have been anxiously careful to retain the marks 
and idioms of the original that are inadmissible 
into other languages ; and, as if a certain beauty 
and energy lay concealed in the Greek, he expresses 
even the vowels and terminations of the cases/' 

In the Gospel according to St. John, the pas« 
sage from chap. vii. verse 53 to chap. viii. verse 1 1 
had no place in the version of Polycarp, but was 
supplied by a later translator, a monk of the name 
of Paul, according to a note in the Paris ms., 
though it is attributed by others to Mar Abba. 
The end of Romans xvi. is found at the close of 
chap, xiv., and the controverted text on the three 
heavenly witnesses, 1 John v. 7, is wanting. 

The version thus executed by Polycarp, and 
which he dedicated to Philoxenes, was revised, 
about an hundred and eight years afterwards, by 
Thomas of Harchel or Haraclea.^ Of this trans^ 
action the only particulars that may now be cer^ 
tainly known, are to be gathered from the epigraph 
at the end of the four Gospels, of which the fol- 
lowing may be offered as a translation :-— « 

* More properly, Harcelia. 



36 OF THE ARAMAIC 

"This is the Book of the four holy Gospels 
which was translated from the Greek language into 
Syrian Aramaic,^ with much care and the hearing 
of a great burden, — at first, indeed, in the city of 
Mabug, in the year eight hundred and nineteen of 
Alhaksandros the Macedonian, (a.d. 508,) in the 
days of the holy lord Philokshanos, confessor, 
bishop of that city. 

"But compared afterwards, with much solici- 
tude, by me, the poor Thoma, upon two Greek 
manuscripts, (tsechoche,) well proved and accurate, 
in Antun of Alhaksandria, the great city, in the 
house of the holy Antoniano. 

" Written, moreover, and compared in the place 
(afore) said, in the year nine hundred and twenty- 
seven of the same Alhaksandros, (a.d. 616,) in the 
fourth indiction. But the labour and anxiety to 
me in this and its fellows, the Lord only knows ; 
who will render to every man accordmg to his 
works, in his just and right judgment, in which 
may I be worthy of mercy from him ! Amen." 

When the Latin Vulgate was revised and re- 
touched in the eighth century, by command of 
Charlemagne,^ recourse was had for that purpose, 
not only to Greek copies, but there is authority for 

^ Surio-Aramio ; so expressed in Ridley's MS., the latter 
word being in Hebrew characters. 

^ Carol. Mag., apud P. MahUlon^ Annul,, torn. i. 
p. 25 ; SiuoN, Hist, Crii., ii. cap. 9 ; Wetstein, PrO' 
leg,, p. 84. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 37 

believing, to the Syriac also,® or at least to the 
four Gospels of the Philoxenian version, as appears 
from internal evidence. Such a collation (the idea 
of which might have been suggested to Alcuin, 
who had the charge of the undertaking, by a pas- 
sage in St. Jerome's preface to the Gospels) may 
serve to account, in some degree, for the remark- 
able affinities existing between the Boman Vulgate, 
the Eusebian Greek, and the Philoxenian Syriac. 

But in the total eclipse of learning by which 
Christendom was overshadowed in after-days, this 
version of the New Testament seems to have passed, 
entirely and for centuries, from the knowledge 
of the Western church. The preservation of its 
existence in the East was probably attributable to 
the instrumentality of Dionysius Barsalibseus, a 
bishop of Amida from a.d. 1166 — 1171, who 
revised it, and caused a number of copies of it to 
be transcribed. 

Two of these were found at Amida, (Diarbekr,) 
about the middle of the last century, by an English 
traveller, named Palmer, who communicated them 
to his friend, the Rev. Gloucester Ridley,® who in 

® Dominus imperator nihil alivd ccepit agere nisi in ora- 

tionibus et libros corr^ere. yam quatuor evangelia 

Christi in ultimo anno ante obitus sui diem cum Greeds et 
Sf/ris optimi correxerat, — The g ax us apv4 Du ChesnCy 
Scriptores Francici, torn. ii. p. 277. 

® <' Ridley received from Amida four mss., the second and 
third of which, according to his arrangement, are copies of 
the Syriac New Testament. His 8ec(«id codex, or Codex 



38 OF THE ARAMAIC 

1761 published a luminous account of them in a 
disquisition Be Syriacarum Novi Foederis Versio- 
num Indole atque Usu, The manuscripts were sub- 
sequently deposited in the library of New College, 
Oxford, and printed under the auspices of the 
University, with a Latin translation and notes by 
the editor. Dr. White, the Laudian Professor of 
Arabic.^ 

The peculiar readings of this version are given 
by Wetstein, who, before the publication of Rid- 
ley's manuscript, made a journey to England for 
the purpose of collating it. But being restricted 
by circumstances to the short period of fourteen 
days for this work, his collection of readings is but 
imperfect in extent, and in some cases deficient in 
correctness. A more copious collection was pub- 
lished by Dr. Storr,^ in which the inadvertences 
of Wetstein are rectified. And of the remarkable 
marginal readings generally attributed to Thomas 



Heracleensisy contains the Philoxenian version throughout, 
and is that which was published by White. His third 
codex, or Codex Barsalibcei, has the text of the Philoxenian 
version in the Gospels, though with additions not found in 
the original Philoxenian ; but in the Acts of the Apostles 
and in the Epistles it has the text of the Peshito."— 
Marsh. 

^ Sacrorum Evangeliorum Versio Syriaca Philoxenianay 
^c, Oxon., 1778. The Acts and Epistles, with a Latin 
interpretation and notes, were published, also, in 4to, from 
the Clarendon press, in 1779. 

* Repertoriunty vol. vii. pp. 3 — 6, &c. ; x. pp. 1—58. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 39 

of Harchel, a list may be found in M. Adler's Ver- 
stones Si/riacdB, p. 79 — 134. 

VIII. THE HIEROSOLYMITAN. 

Ascending in the order of time, we have next 
the Pal^estino-Syriac version, or Syriac trans- 
lation of Jerusalem, This is properly a lectiona- 
rium, consisting of portions of the New Testament 
distributed for public reading in congregations. 
Only one manuscript of this is known to be extant. 
It was discovered in the Vatican at Rome by Pro- 
fessor James George Adler ; and in that library is 
distinguished by the name of Codex Vaticantis xix. 
An interesting account of it was given by Adler in 
his " Bibhcal and Critical Journey to Rome," ^ and 
another and stUl more complete one in his elabo- 
rate Versiones Syriacce, 

It appears that the ms. is written upon substan- 
tial vellum, in quarto, and comprises nearly four 
hundred columns, having two columns on each 
page. The alphabetical character varies from the 
common Syriac, and approaches more to the square 
Hebrew letter. The distinguishing point of the 
dolath is not marked, and instead of the letter phe 
being employed to express the sounds of p and f, 
two distinct characters are used. A fac-simile is 
exhibited by Adler in his VersioneSy and another 

^Biblisch Critische Reise nach Rom, Altona, 1783. 

E 2 



40 OF THE ARAMAIC 

specimen may be found in the Syriac Grammar of 
Sir J. D. Michaelis, with the title of Alphabetum 
Adlerianum. The orthography, also, frequently 
diverges from the usual method of Syrian spelling, 
— ^an eflfect, most probably, of the incompetency 
or negligence of the amanuensis. 

The dialect in which this version is written, is 
uncultivated and barbarous, being largely inter- 
mixed with exotic words, both Hellenistic and 
Latin. It is a similar language, indeed, to that 
which obtains in the Jerusalem Talmud, a corrupt 
East Aramean. The emphatic plural of nouns 
ends in ia, instead of the usual a ; and the pre- 
formant of the third person plural in the future is 
not nun, as in Western Syriac, but yod. The first 
person, also, has sometimes yod in the future ; and 
the pronominal affix of the third person of plural 
nouns is conmionly ui, instead of the usual vM. 

A subscription states that the ms., as a trart'- 
script, was executed a.d. 1030, in a monastery at 
Antioch. The version itself Professor Adler has no 
hesitation in referring to the fourth or fifth cen- 
tury. He considers the mixed or corrupt charac- 
ter of the dialect to be no argument against such 
an antiquity ; the same being found in the Jerusa- 
lem Talmud, which, by almost common consent, is 
held to have been written in the fourth century. 

Accounts of the peculiar readings of this ancient 
document have been given by Adler, in the work 
referred to, and by Dr. Birch, in his edition of the 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 41 

Greek Testament. The text agrees in general with 
what is called " the Alexandrine Recension." 

Portions of the Hierosolymitan version may be 
read in the Chaldaisches Lesebuch of Vater, de- 
scribed ante, page 20. These are St. John vii. 
58 ; viii. 1 — 11 ; and Matt, xxyii. 3 — 11 : and we 
have a continuation of the same chapter in St. 
Matthew, (verses 15 — 23,) in Michaelis's Intro- 
duction, vol. ii. p. 75. In Matt, xxvii. 17 there 
is a remarkable variation of one of the proper 
names : " Which do ye require from the two, that 
I return to you, Jesu-bar-Raban, or Jesus who is 
called Meshicha?'"* 

There were probably some early translations of 
the scriptures into the Aramean dialects, which 
have not survived the vicissitudes of time. One, 
of the entire Old Testament, is reported to have 
been made by Mar-Abba, who was mafrejan or pri- 
mate of the East from a.d. 535 to A. d. 552 ; but 
no vestige of this is at present traceable. 

^ This reading is retained, according to La Croze, in the 
Armenian version. (Letter to Beausobre.) It is also quoted 
by Origen, in his thirty-fifth Homily on St. Matthew, 
(page 86, edit. Paris,) where he accomits for its omission 
'^ in many copies," by the prevailing dislike that the name 
of the Saviour should be thus joined with that of a male-^ 
factor. 



E 3 



42 OF THE ARAMAIC 



IX. OF THE OLD SYRIAC VERSION. 

But of the translations of scripture in this vene- 
rable language, that designated the Peschito is 
at once the most ancient and valuable. In point 
of antiquity, indeed, it takes precedence of every 
other Oriental version whatsoever ; and such has 
been the high estimation in which it has been held by 
men of great eminence, that they have not scrupled 
to consider large portions of it as the true ori- 
ginals rather than translations of holy writ. 

The title of Peschito is an emphatical Syrian 
term for that which is "simple," "uncorrupt," 
and "true ;"^ and applied as from the beginning 
to this version, it strongly indicates the veneration 
and confidence with which it has ever been 
regarded by all the churches of the East.® The 

® From the Chaldee or East-Aramean verb pesTiat, *' to 
extend;" also, "to study, teach, interpret, expound, espe- 
cially with strictness ; to expound according to the letter." 
(Sanhed., 100. 2.) See Castell^s Lexicon Hept, col. 3091. 
In the same dialect the noun peshat is, " simplicity of inter- 
pretation;" also, "the literal sense of scripture;" "that 
which does not wander from the letter." (Shah., Ixiii. 1.) 
Hence peshotinim, " literal interpreters of scripture." In the 
Syriac Testament the epithet is used. Matt. vi. 22, for 
"simple;" (aTrAovs, that is, "clear, sound, perfect;") and 
Heb. i. 8, for " right, upright, true." 

^ De versione Syriacd iestatur SionitOf quod ut semper in 
tummd veneratione et auctoritate habita crat apud omnca 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 43 

appellation is given to the entire translation of 
scripture, as well the Old Testament as the New. 
Of the former a few remarks have been made 
already ; those which follow refer only to the 
latter. 

I. The Old Syriac version, then, does not include 
all the holy books which are received among our- 
selves as canonical. It comprises the four Gospels, 
and Acts ; the Epistles of St. Paul, among which 
is reckoned that to the Hebrews ; the first Epistle 
of St. John, the first of St. Peter, and the Epistle 
of St. James. But in the printed editions of the 
Syriac New Testament we have the complete canon ; 
the remaining books having been supphed from 
other sources, to be pointed out presently. 

II. Of the TIME when this version was made, 
perhaps, no certain knowledge will ever be attained ; 
and buried as is the historical fact in the obscurity 
and silence of a remote antiquity, we may not won- 
der at the want of a perfect agreement among the 
learned respecting it. On the one hand, the tra- 
dition of the Oriental churches carries it into the 
apostolical age itself, affirming the evangelist Mark 
to have been the author of a great portion of it ; 
but, on the other, there have not been wanting cri- 

pojmlos qui ChaldaicA sive SyriacA tttuntur Imgu&y sic ptib' 
lid in omn^ms eomm ecclesiis aniiquissimiSf constitutis in 
Syrid, Mesopotamid, ChalcUs&y MgyptOy et denique in uni- 
versis OrienHs partibus dispersis ac disseminoHsy accepta €io 
lecta fuit»'^WAJs ton. 



44 OF THE ARAMAIC 

tics of considerable repute who have assigned it a 
date no higher than the fifth century. 

It would be superfluous to observe that the ver- 
sion abounds with internal evidence that it was 
made before the period when the Arabic language 
generally superseded the Syriac vernacular in Pales- 
tine. A copy, indeed, in the Laurentian library 
bears so early a date as a.d. 586. 

Or, that it had been long extant at the time 
when the Philoxenian version was made, in 508. 
That undertaking had been projected by Xenayas, 
not because a translation of the New Testament 
did not exist in the Syrian tongue, but from the 
wish to exhibit a version which should be made 
from the Greek text most in reputation at that par- 
ticular period, and upon the rigid principle of an 
ad literam translation, as well, probably, as from a 
desire to influence the then pending controversy 
between the Nestorians and Monophysites. 

That it already existed at the opening of the 
sixth century, is therefore certain ; and by means 
of the date of the first Armenian version, we are 
enabled to identify it an hundred years earlier. 
The Armenian, as now extant, was executed from 
the Greek shortly after the Council of Ephesus, 
held in 431 ; but there was another version made 
from the Syriac, by Isaac, the patriarch of Arme- 
nia, more than twenty years before that time. 
Thus, Moses of Chorene, a valuable Armenian his- 
torian, speaking of Miesrob, the founder of their 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 45 

national literature, says, " He returned from Ibe- 
ria to Armenia, and found the great Isaac employed 
in translating from the Syriac; being able to pro- 
cure no Greek manuscripts : for all the Greek 
books had been burnt by Meruzan,^ and the Per- 
sian governors permitted not even the Greeks who 
lived in their part of Armenia to use any other lan- 
guage than the Syriac." ® And afterward : " Our 
translators returned, (from the council of Ephe- 
sus,) and delivered to Isaac and Miesrob the letters 
and decrees of this assembly, with a copy of the 
Bible carefully written (in Greek) ; which as soon 
as they had received, they cheerfully submitted to 
the task of again translating what they had trans-* 
lated twice before." ^ 

Now it is imiformly admitted that the first 
translation, which we here see had been made from 
the Syriac, was accomplished about 410. And it 
will be observed that " the Syriac '* is spoken of 
by the historian as a text ^hich was veU known 
as an established and approved exemplar of holy 
writ. Still further back, we find the Peschito ver- 
sion quoted in the writings of St. Ephraem,^ who 
lived not later than a. d. 370. 

' A persecuting general of the Persians. 

^ Moses Chore n, Hist, lib. iii. cap. 64 (Whiston's 
Translation). Moses of Chorene wrote in the fifth century. 

' Ibid,, lib. iii. cap. 61. 

^ As Matt. iii. 17 ; Luke i. 71 ; John i. 3 ; CoL iii. 5, 
&c. Sancti Patris nostri Ephraem Spri Opera RonuB^ 
torn, iv. Roms, 1732. 



46 OF THE ARAMAIC 

Beyond this, the Syriac version is repeatedly 
referred to by Origen, in the third century. 
Those references are, indeed, to the Old Testa- 
ment ; but it will not be rationally supposed that 
this was the only portion of scripture extant in the 
language ; and if, as appears evident, the Old Tes- 
tament version had been executed by Christians, 
we can hardly imagine that the division of the 
sacred volume which such interpreters must have 
regarded as of paramount importance, would either 
be left untranslated, or would not have had a pri- 
ority of attention. 

Though there may be no additional evidences of 
a higher antiquity at present traceable,^ yet the 
existence of this version even a hundred years ear- 
Ker may be reasonably inferred from the circum- 
stances of the Syrian church. Christianity won 
for itself an extensive triumph in Syria and Meso- 
potamia before the close of the first century. Abga- 
rus, king of Edessa, was undeniably converted to 
the faith of Christ within twenty years after the 
ascension. This is an historical fact, and quite 
independent of the authenticity or spuriousness 
of the alleged correspondence between him and 
our Saviour, as reported by Eusebius. Under 
the auspices of this prince, the Gospel had free 

2 Melito (about a. d. 170) quotes *' the Syriac " on Gen. 
xxii. 13 ; but the fragmentary note which contains this cita- 
tion (given in the Koman edition of the LXX.) may not be 
genuine. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 47 

course throughout his dominions. The church 
which Abulpharagius states was built by him at 
Edessa^ was an edifice remarkable for its magni- 
tude and splendour.^ But where the doctrines of 
the New Testament were at this early period so 
generally prevalent, it seems to consist with a high 
degree of probability that the sacred records them- 
selves should not have remained long without a 
translation into the common language. The late 
Dr. Burton, of Oxford, a writer of great caution, 
was evidently of this opinion. " Christianity," 
says he, " undoubtedly flourished at Edessa in very 
early times. This city was a kind of metropolis 
of the Christians in that part of Asia ; and if the 
Old Syriac version of the New Testament was made 
in the first century, as some critics have supposed, 
the conjecture is not improbable that the transla- 
tion was made at Edessa." — " Lectures," p. 328. 

No one can pretend that the ecclesiastico-literary 
history of the third and fourth centuries is so 
obscure, as that a work of such importance might 
have been accomplished within that period without 
some vestiges at least to memorialize the circum- 
stances of the fact. What difficulty is there in 
ascertaining the history of the Philoxenian version 

^ It was built on the principle of a temple, having a flight 
of steps which led to what was called ''the holy place." 
For notices of Edessa confer Euseb., Hist. Eccles,, lib. i. 
cap. 13 ; Bayer., Hist, Osrftoena, p. 95, et seq, ; Socrat., 
Eccles, Hist,y lib. iv. cap. 18. 



48 OF THE ARAMAIC 

in the beginning of the sixth, or the revision of 
the Itala by St. Jerome in the fourth, century? 
Yet no clearer light rests upon those times than on 
the century which preceded them. But like that 
of the Old Italic version in the Western church, 
the age of the Peschito evidently dates back to a 
period when the Hterature of Christianity was in 
its infancy. 

The universal reception of the Peschito version 
by the churches of the East from time immemorial, 
tends to a similar conclusion. It must be observed 
that the Oriental church was soon divided by the 
effects of theological strife into a variety of sects, 
as the Nestorians, Maronites, Jacobites, Copts, &c., 
sufficient accounts of whom may be found in the 
ordinary church histories. But amid their irrecon- 
cileable and bitter differences, all these parties 
have, at all times, regarded the Old Syriac version 
as the canonical standard of scripture. But as it 
is altogether inconceivable that, had this translation 
been put forth by any one of them in particular, 
it would have been at all received by the others, 
their common and steadfast acknowledgment of it 
demonstrates that it was made long before the 
beginning of those divisions. The veneration in 
which it is held,* and the jealous care with which 

^ Quamvis lingua SyricuuB usus communis sit apud dis- 
tincUis diversarum religionum ncttiones^ sacrorum tamen vo- 
luminum iniegritas summa semper cum religione servata est 
ah omnibus, ita ut nulla vel minima discrepantia in eorum 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 49^ 

its text has been watched over by different rival 
communities, spread from Edessa to China, must 
not only be considersd as a proof of a very early 
origin, but a guarantee for its literal integrity. 

The absence of certain books (namely, the 
second and third Epistles of St. John, the second 
of St. Peter, the Epistle of St. Jude, and the Apo- 
calypse) from the canon of the Peschito, suggests 
another argument for its antiquity. For either 
those books were unknown at the time when the 
version was made, or, being known, were not as 
yet universally recognised as canonical. But nei- 
ther of these suppositions can consist with a date 
later than the middle of the second century. 

Internal evidence is, moreover, suppHed in the 
primeval character of its phraseology. For exam- 
ple : epiakopoy plural, episkopee, is the Syriacized 
Greek for " bishop ;" and kashisho, plural, kashi- 
skee, the equivalent for " presbyter " or " elder." 
Now, mark the way in which these terms are 
employed in the Peschito. In Acts xx. 28, St. 
Paul says to those who in verse 1 7 are called kashi" 
shee d^ idtho d^ EphesoSy — " the presbyters of the 
church of Ephesus," — "Take heed therefore to 
yourselves, and to the whole flock over which" 

lectione deprehendatur, Viget autem ea lingua primo apud 
Chaldmoa Mesopotamia populosy haresi NestoriaruB miser^ 
obligatos; turn apud Syros Jacobitas qui Dioscoridisy Eutp" 
chetisy et Jacobi falsa dogmata secuti, Monothelitarum nomine 
dignoscuntur ; tertio apud Maronitas nostros, etiam SyroSy 
4*0. — ^Gabriel Sionita, ad Psalt, Syr, Prafat,, p. iii. 

F 



50 OF THE ARAMAIC 

(dakimkun boh Rucho d ' Kudsho episkopee) " the 
Holy Ghost hath constituted you biskops.^^ Again : 
" A bishop " (Greek, episkopos, but in the Syriac, 
kashisho, " a presbyter ") must be blameless," &c. 
(1 Tim. iii. 2.) " For a bishop " (Greek, episkopos, 
but in the Syriac, kashisho, " a presbyter") " must," 
&c. (Titus i. 7.) So Phil. i. 1, where the original 
Greek reads : " To the saints — ^with the bishops 
and deacons ;" the Syriac has : " To the saints — 
with" (kashishee vamshameshonee) " the presbyters 
and servitors," So also 1 Tim. iii. 1 : " li any man 
desire the office of a bishop ;" — Greek, " the epis- 
copate," but in the Syriac, kashishutho, presbyteri- 
atum, " the office of a presbyter," &c. Michaelis, 
adverting to this point, observes, " We know that 
the distinction between bishops and elders was in- 
troduced into the Christian church in a very early 
age ; yet this distinction was unknown to the Syriac 
translator." But, whether this were the case or 
not, the phraseology certainly proves (to adopt the 
remarkable words of Bishop Marsh, in his notes 
on Michaelis) " that the Syriac translator under- 
stood his original, and that he made a proper dis- 
tinction between the language of the primitive, and 
that of the hierarchical, church." (Vol. ii. p. 553.) 

On these and other accounts, the prevaihng suf- 
frages of learned men have always been in favour 
of the high antiquity and great importance of the 
Peschito version. 

.One of the earliest writers on the subject was 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 51 

Guido Fabricius de la Boderie. In his preface to 
the Syriac New Testament, printed in the fifth vo- 
lume of the Paris Polyglott, he does not scruple to 
attribute the work to St. Mark the evangelist. La 
Boderie was not held in high estimation as a man 
of strong powers of judgment ; but in the opinion 
here advanced, he had on his side, as before ob- 
served, the constant tradition of the Syrian church. 

Immanuel Tremellius, who published a valuable 
edition of the Aramaic New Testament, while he 
acknowledges the uncertainty which rests upon 
the author by whom, and the time when, the ver- 
sion was made, avows his conviction of its having 
been accomplished in the time of the apostles, or 
of their immediate disciples.^ 

So the author of the preface to the edition 
published by Trostius, extolling the Peschito as 
the most exact of all the translations of the New 
Testament, considers that it must have been made 
by one of the evangelists, or at least by some one 
who had seen and conferred with the apostles, and 
probably at Antioch.^ 

'^ Interim veritate prorstts est consentaneum intra ipsa 
ecclesicB Christi initia vel ah apostolis ipsis, vel eorum dis" 
cipulis profectum esse, — Trem. in Epist, Dedic, N. T. Syr, 
ad Regin. Elizah, 

^ Versio est hac Syra^ sed omnium prima et antiquissimoy 
inquamy sed omnibus aliis ut probatior et plenior praferenda : 
versio est adhuc dico sed vel alicujus ex evangelistisy vel 
omninb illorum qui Antiochice hdbuerunt ipsos Apostolos pra" 
sentes, quos de locis multis consulere et audire potuerunt, 
—Jacob. Martin. Pr, in N, T, Syr, Trostii, 

F 2 



52 OF THE ARAMAIC 

The later continental critics incHne, in general, 
to refer it indeterminately to some time in the first 
or second century. De Rossi affirms it to he 
*' very ancient ; " Jahn, that it was not later than 
the second century ; Bauer^ not later than the 
third ; Michaelis, the close of the first century, in 
great likelihood hy a Christianized Jew of Edessa. 
Among our own countrymen, Walton, Lowth, and 
Kennicott, are in favour of the times of the apos- 
tles; Adam Clarke refers it to somewhen '^he- 
tween the second and third centuries;" and 
Bishop Marsh, to some indeterminate time he- 
tween the first and the fourth. 

If the humhle individual now writing were to 
presume to offer an opinion, it would he, that 
some parts of the translation were extant a consi- 
derable time before the completion of the rest.' 
The Gospels have a somewhat different style from 
the Epistles, which seems to indicate another hand, 
and an earlier period. They may have been exe- 
cuted before the close of the first century ; but, as 
the apostolical writings were not, probably, col- 
lected and embodied with the other inspired books, 
till towards the middle of the second, it is not 
likely that any attempt at a complete version of 
the New Testament in the Syriac language would 
be made till after that event. 

^ Ridley thinks the Peschito consists of several versions 
made in the first century, in the same way as the Western 
Itala. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 53 

[The OBJECTIONS which have been urged against 
referring this translation to so an early an age, are 
not such as in anyway counterbalance the fore- 
going considerations in favour of it. One is taken 
from the presence of a few Latin and Greek words 
which were not current, it is said, among oriental 
writers before the middle ages. The word kestu- 
narecy for example, (Matt, xxvii. 65,) is affirmed to 
be the same as the low Latin term qucestionarii, 
and to betoken a comparatively modem age. 
Father Simon, (Hist. Crit., ii. 164,) in reply to 
this objection, considers the word to be an erratum 
for ciistonde, a Syriac adaptation of the corre- 
sponding koustddia of the Greek text. According 
to Schaaf, kostinar is Aramaic for prafectus rerum 
criminalium. But, conceding that the word may 
be the same as the Latin qtuBstionarivSy still it is 
not so modem a term as the objectors represent, 
found as it is in the works of St. Jerome in the 
fourth century.® Besides, the circumstance that 
the word may not be read in an earher writer, 
conveys no necessary reason for concluding that it 
could not have been current long before. 

So, too, in Matthew x. 9, simoy " silver,'.' is said 
to be merely the asimon of the later Greeks. But 
this objection is founded in error, as we have samo 
and sima in Chaldee with the same meaning. In 
Romans i. 16, the Greeks are designated Armayee, 

^ UiEROK. in Joel, cap. ii, 
F 3 



54 OF THE ARAMAIC 

which, as interpreted by the objectors to signify 
*' Eomans," betrays, it is said, a date subsequent 
to the erection of Byzantium into the metropolis 
of the empire by Constantine. But the word 
means literally Arameans : belonging originally to 
the Syrians, it was in after-times employed as a 
designation for Heathens in general. When used, 
therefore, by the Syrian translator, it merely ex- 
presses the import of the Greek name Hellenes, as 
used, after the manner of the New Testament, for 
the Gentiles at large. These are specimens of the 
objections which have been alleged against the 
great antiquity of this version by Wetstein and 
others ; satisfactory replies to which may be found 
in the work of Michaelis already quoted.] 

III. The several books of the New Testament 
have a dilSerent arrangement in the manuscripts of 
the Syriac version, from the common one which 
is found in the printed editions of it. In the 
Peschito, the sacred volume is divided into three 
parts : the first contains the Gospels ; the second, 
the Acts and three general Epistles ; and the third, 
the Epistles of St. Paul, set forth in the usual 
order. , 

Nor are the books divided, as with us, into 
chapters and verses, but sectioned according to 
those apportionments of the text observed by the 
eastern churches in the pubHc reading of the 
scriptures. Accordingly, at the commencement 
of each jpericope, or lesson, there is found in most 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 55 

manuscripts, either in the body or the mar- 
gin of the page, a title or rubric, written in 
bold red letters, indicating the particular day, 
festival, or occasion, to which the lesson is appro- 
priated.^ 

03* In the Gospel and Epistle now rendered 
into English, these divisions have been preserved ; 
the translator not considering himself at Hberty to 
alter or omit them. Along with the successive 
lessons he has also retained their several rubrical 
titles. For particular expressions in these he is, 
of course, in no wise accountable, except for the 
faithful translation of them. 

X. RELATION TO THE GREEK TEXT. 

What is the particular relation of the Peschito 
Syriac to the original text of the New Testament ? 
The importance of this question must be evident 
to all conversant with sacred Hterature ; but it is 
one, nevertheless, which, judging from the ob- 
scure, and, in some cases, self-contradictory, state- 
ments of bibhcal critics, is far from receiving a 
satisfactory answer. For students who are at the 
outset of these inquiries, it may be advantageous 

° Father Simon mentions a manuscript in the Colbert 
library, in which the titles of the lessons are not given in the 
text, but alphabetical references to a tabular calendar, or 
annuary of readings, are employed in their uteadt^^Hisioire 
Critique^ ii. 170. 



'56 OF THE ARAMAIC 

to remark, that, from the great antiquity of the 
sacred writings ; the immense number of copies 
spread through so many regions of the earth ; the 
persevering labour required to multiply them before 
the invention of printing ; the intellectual, moral, 
and physical infirmities of transcribers, — for exam- 
ple, the exhausting nature of the employment; 
want of acquaintance, in many cases, with the 
language ; well meant but injurious attempts at 
emendation ; and, perhaps, in a few passages, 
wilful corruption of the text, either by omission or 
interpolation, for sectarian purposes ; — ^from such 
causes as these, the scripture text became subject 
long ago to a large number of verbal or Hteral 
variations, which, though they do not interfere 
with the subject matter of Revelation, so as to 
impair the doctrinal, preceptive, historical, or pro- 
phetical INTEGRITY of the holy writings, are, 
nevertheless, of sufficient weight to justify the 
application of time, labour, and life, which some 
have devoted to the investigation of them, with 
the design of re-establishing the very letter of the 
inspired record in its original soundness. 

Now, in ascertaining the correctness of a read- 
ing, it is necessary not only that it should have 
the consent of a number of manuscripts, but that 
those manuscripts should be independent wit- 
nesses. Among the known ancient mss. of the 
Gospels, upwards of an hundred have an agree- 
ment^ which, excepting inadvertencies of the pen. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 57 

extends^ to their very syllables.^ This demon- 
strates a oneness of origin^ identifying them as a 
specific CLASS, and rendering their testimony, in 
determining the claims of a reading, as that of but 
one witness. A similar principle of agreement will 
consociate others. On this ground it has been 
considered practicable to arrange the various manu- 
scripts extant into certain defined assemblages, — 
variously termed classes, famOies, recensions, or 
editions, of text, which seem to have had a similar 
origin, and to have obtained a predominant recep- 
tion among the churches of particular regions. 

This idea seems to have been originally thrown 
out by John Albert Bengel ; but Sender, of Halle, 
was the first who, to any considerable extent, car- 
ried into practice the enterprize it suggested.^ To 
the late Dr. Griesbach the merit belongs of con- 
structing, in the prosecution of this design, a sys- 
tem of verbal criticism which arrested the attention 
of the learned both in Europe and America, and 
which has exerted no small infiuence on the science 
of Scripture-interpretation. But the still more 
recent labours of Dr. Schulz, as embodied in his 
pre-eminently valuable edition of the Greek Testa- 
ment,^ have left those of all his predecessors far 

^ Griesbach's Prolegom. sect. iii. 

^ Semleri Apparatus ad liber alem Novi l^esiamenH 
Interpretationem. Halae, 1787- 8vo. 

* Novum Testamentum Grace, Textum ad Fidem Codi- 
cum, Verstonum, et Patrum recensuiiy et Lectionis Varietatem 



58 OF THE ARAMAIC 

in the back-ground. Bengel considered the manu- 
scripts of the New Testament as distributable into 
two great dasses or ** families," as he calls them, — 
the Asiatic and the African.* Griesbach has three 
classes or "recensions" of text; 1. The Alexan- 
drine or Egyptian. 2. The "Western, or that which 
was used among the churches of AMca, Italy, 
Gaul, and the greater part of Europe. 3, The 
Eastern, Byzantine, or Constantinopolitan, from 
the established use of it in that metropolis and 
patriarchate. It may be added, that in the work 
of Dr. Nolan on this subject,^ a yariation of terms 
is efnployed to express these classes ; his Egyptian 
class answering to Griesbach' s Western, the Pales- 
tine to the Alexandrine, and the Byzantine to the 
Eastern. 

But the difficulties which attend on these sys- 
tems are so undeniably great, that few men will 
be found who can give them their entire confi- 
dence. Some eminent philologists have deemed 
even Griesbach' s a merely imaginary speculation ; 
an ingenious device, as Professor Lee describes it, 
which serves no other end than to envelope a 
subject, not obscure in itself, in a sort of Egyptian 

adjecU J, J, Grieshachius, Berlin, 1827. The text of 
Schulz is exhibited on the beautiiiilly printed pages of Mr. 
Bagster's ^^ Hexapla New Testament." 

* Apparatus Criticus ad N". T, 

^ Inquiry into the Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, &c. 
8vo. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. b9 

darkness.® It certainly has not received that 
demonstration which the nature of the subject 
demands ; while facts, on the contrary, are un- 
friendly to just conclusions in its favour. It 
would be iiaturally expected, for example, that did 
such a complete distinction of classes reaUy exist, 
some ancient copies of the text would be found in 
complete conformity with one or another of them. 
But this is by no means the case. Dr. Schulz 
himself, " while he gives his opinion that the doc- 
trine of different recensions is not to be rejected, 
candidly acknowledges, that there never was any 
authority by which the characteristics of the Alex- 
andrine, Western, and Constantinopolitan recen- 

® Prolegomm. to Bagster'* Polyglot vi. p. 69. A prejur 
dice has existed against the labours of Dr. Griesbach, on 
account of his supposed heterodoxy on the doctrine of the 
supreme Godhead of our Saviour. It is but justice, how- 
ever, to the memory of this great critic, to observe, that he 
himself repudiated the charge of heterodoxy as calumnious 
and malevolent ; most solemnly invoking the Deity to wit- 
ness the truth of his profession of faith in the Divinity of the 
Redeemer ; regarding it as s doctrine so intimately inter- 
woven with the testimony of scripture, that the one and the 
other must stand or fall togetlier. He then specifies John i. 
1 — 3, as holding forth an evidence for that truth which 
defies all rational exception. See his preface to the Apostoli- 
cal Writings, 177^* However questionable the success of 
his labours in the picirticular end he contemplated, they pre- 
sent, nevertheless, a claim on the gratitude of the theological 
world, as having called into light an almost universal index 
to the resources available for the verbal criticism of the New 
Testament. 



60 OF THE ARAMAIC 

sions could be determined ; that no ms. or ver- 
sion uniformly exhibits a text in such a clearly 
defined state as must assign it to some particular 
recension; but, on the contrary, even the most 
ancient show some marks of other recensions than 
those to which they have been assigned ; that it is 
scarcely possible to show, in any respect, a parti- 
cular character appropriate to any of the recensions, 
BO called, and in what way any one may be distin- 
guished from the rest ; that there are no settled 
grounds whereby to determine the number and 
character of particular readings necessary to con- 
stitute any new recension, and that none of the 
documents of the various recensions exhibit them 
in an unadulterated condition, but more or less in 
a state of corruption and confusion."^ 

Some Mss., again, exhibit the characteristics of 
more than one recension in different parts, while 
others, as appears from the researches of the 
learned editor just quoted, belong to neither. 
Moreover, could the recensions of Alexandria, Con- 
stantinople, and the West, be weU authenticated 
and defined, who shall prove that they are the tmly 
recensions? Michaelis supposes four; Schulz at 
one time believed in five ; ® and Griesbach himself 

7 Schulz, Preface, 32 — 35, condensed by Prof. Turner. 
See Biblical Cabinet, vol. viL p. 262. Confer also Schott, 
Isagoge in Novum Fcedus, p. 563, and Home, ii. 
p, 69. 

^ Cura in Textxis Evang, Heidelb., 1820. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 61 

admitted the possibility of more than three.® But 
if this be the case, the evidence of three only must 
needs be partial and insufficient. For, (to employ 
the language of archbishop Laurence,) " if we sup- 
pose the existence of five or six, but bring only 
three to a comparison, it is manifest that we cannot 
possibly determine to which of the five or six any 
manuscript properly belongs ; but merely that it 
possesses a closer af&nity to one than to the other 
two of the three compared. Instead of establish- 
ing five or six classes, I confess that I see not good 
ground for the admission of even three. I do not, 
however, deny that these or more than these exist, 
because their existence is possible ; but I contend 
that it has not been sufficiently proved." ^ 

The foregoing remarks, though somewhat digres- 
sive, have, nevertheless, a bearing on the inquiry 
proposed at the outset of this section. The imper- 
fection of the popular system of Greek recensions 
is manifest from its insufficiency to account for the 
pecuHar readings of the Old Syriac version. If it 
be asked, to which of these three classes of text 
that version is related as its exemplar ; it will not 
be easy to find a satisfactory answer. Some give 
us to understand that it was made from copies of 
the recension now known as the Byzantine, and 
others the Alexandrine, while Griesbach tells us it 

® Cur<B in Epistolas PatUinas. 1777. 
^ << Remarks on the systematical Classification of Manu- 
scripts," &c. Oxon., 1014. 

G 



62 OF THE ARAMAIC 

is not like any of them, and yet, on the other hand, 
not totally dissimilar from any : that in many [of 
its readings] it agrees with the Alexandrine, in 
more with the Occidental, and in some, also, with 
the Constantinopolitan.^ 

Without reference to the disputed theory of an 
Aramaic original for some parts of the New Testa- 
ment, — for instance, the Gospel of St. Matthew 
and the Epistle to the Hebrews, — a theory, how- 
ever, which has never been disproved ;^ but taMng 
the fact as granted, that the whole canon was com- 
posed in Greek, the occasional contrarieties between 
the version before us and the principal Greek exem- 
plars can be accounted for, either by the circum- 
stance of extensive alterations in the Syrian text, 
or the admission of a very high antiquity and a 
direct relation to the apostolical text in its earhest 
and purest state. 

The first of these positions, which is that of Dr. 
Griesbach, (who thinks that the Peschito must 
have been revised repeatedly at various times from 

^ iVW/t Tuirum recensionum Syrwca versio prout quidem 
excttsa est similis est, verum nee ulli prorsus dissimilis est. 
In multis concinit cum Alexandrin&, in pluribus cum Occu 
dentali, in nonnullis etiam cum C<mstantinopolitan&, 

' For, after all that has been written on this point, who 
has been able to show that these two books were not origin- 
ally composed in Hebrew, or the Palestino-Aramean of that 
day ? that the old Syriac text is not a scarcely-altered adap- 
tation of them to an intimately kindred dialect ? or even that 
it is not the original itself ? 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 63 

Greek mss. of later dates and different recensions,) 
is not only unsupported by direct historical evi- 
dence, but appears to disagree with incontrover- 
tible facts. "We admit, indeed, 'that the archetypal 
manuscripts on which the version was made may 
not have been literally faultless, and that the work 
itself, as should be expected, has not descended to 
us through so long a series of ages with a text in 
all respects identic with that of its first copies ; but 
where is the proof that it has been subjected to 
deliberate, intentional, and corrupting alterations ? 
In what do they consist ? when were they made ? 
and by whom ? We are not unacquainted with the 
changes to which other versions have been liable ; 
but who is there who can specify the occasion when, 
or the party by whom, the Peschito Syriac has 
been so repeatedly altered ? But an opposite con- 
clusion is plainly indicated by historical facts; 
inasmuch as this version was from time immemo- 
rial the Received Text of the Oriental church at 
large, while the mutual and bitter jealousies of the 
factions into which that church has been rent ever 
since the early part of the fourth century, have 
rendered any injurious tampering with a document 
which they have all regarded with equal veneration 
as " the pure, the uncorrupted, the accurate," no- 
thing short of a moral impossibility. Remember- 
ing, in addition to this, that it is undeniably the 
most ancient of all the Eastern versions, and that 
it was executed in the very region in which the 

g2 



64 OF THE ARAMAIC 

holy scriptures as a complete canon were first pro- 
pagated^ we conceive the other opinion to be far 
better entitled to our preference, which regards 
this version as an early and exact reflection of the 
primeval text of the New Testament. 

The manuscripts on which the pen of inspiration 
first traced the evangeUcal doctrine have perished 
for ages. Their existence could not have been pre- 
served without an extraordinary intervention of 
Providence, nor would their conservation have 
enriched the church with any essential advantage 
of which their decay has deprived her. In ordi- 
nary cases in which some valuable work has never 
been published, the preservation of the manuscript 
is a matter of importance. Of this description 
there are many inedited writings laid up in the 
great libraries of Europe. But so soon as a work 
is given to the world by the dispersion of a multi- 
tude of copies, the autograph itself becomes of infe- 
rior consideration. The original exemplar, like a 
grain of com in the earth, may perish in obHvion ; 
but the practical ends of its first existence may be 
carried out ad libitum by large and successive edi- 
tions. And so it has been with the writings of the 
prophets, evangehsts, and apostles. They were 
speedily and carefully collected into a volume, of 
which copies without number have been diffused 
through the world. As to the original autographs, 
the circumstances of the early church, which had 
no central locality or common depositorium for 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 65 

such documents, were extremely unfavourable for 
their preservation. The peculiar property of no 
society in particular, they were properly looked 
upon as having been written for the benefit of the 
Christian community at large ; and being trans- 
mitted from one place to another, and used as 
the models for numbers of copies, both pubhc and 
private, they would be subject to constant physical 
deterioration. The frequent perils, too, which 
menaced the property and Hves of the first Chris- 
tians, will leave but little room for wonder at their 
total disappearance. 

The writings of the apostles were, during the 
life-time of their authors, widely dispersed among 
the faithful. Of the Gospels and Epistles nume- 
rous copies must have been in existence before the 
close of the first century, and constituted what 
may be considered as the first, though a desultory, 
edition of the New Testament. Liable even these 
copies must have been to some varieties in the 
readings, — a circumstance ahnost inseparable from 
every extensive effort of penmanship ; yet as the 
same error could not have obtained in every copy, 
the genuine expression might at all times, by a 
judicious collation, have been easily ascertained. 
And in the formation of the canon, by the collec- 
tion of these separate treatises into one defined and 
ever-hallowed volume, which took place not later 
than A.D. 150, a preference would be, doubtless, 
given to such copies as best maintained^ in all 

g3 



66 OF THE ARAMAIC 

respects, the integrity of the inspired record. At 
that early period no difficulty existed to prevent 
this settlement of a perfect text. "Whatever open- 
ings were subsequently presented for the introduc- 
tion of supposititious works or readings, no 
attempt could have been made in that one without 
immediate detection. The intelligence which per- 
vaded the churches respecting the source and 
authority of each of the holy books, would prepare 
the way, at the proper time, for the determination 
and pubhc acknowledgment of their number and 
sum. And of this primitive edition of the canon, 
— ^whether promulged at Ephesus, Eome, Jerusa- 
lem, Antioch, or Edessa, — which communicated a 
specific character to the sacred text during the 
second and third centuries, the antique Syriac ver- 
sion is, most probably, a well-delineated and there- 
fore invaluable representation. 

XI. RELATION OF THE PESCHITO TO SOME 
OTHER VERSIONS. 

1 . At what time the scriptures were first trans- 
lated into Latin, has never been ascertained ; but 
that one or more versions existed in that language 
at a very early date in the Christian era, is evident 
from the quotations found in the writings of Ter- 
tuUian.^ It appears, also, from a notice we have 

* About A. D. 209* 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 67 

in a treatise of St. Augustine,^ that long before 
his time a number of Latin versions had been put 
into circulation, of various degrees of merit or 
defectiveness. But the diversity of these numerous 
publications soon became attended with great incon- 
venience. Performed in many cases by incompe- 
tent hands, their execution was exceedingly imper- 
fect, and by the injudicious union of detached and 
incongruous translations, a kind of composite or 
patchwork text was becoming extensively received^ 
which was at once distorted by erroneous render- 
ings of the inspired record, and corrupted by the 
interpolation of marginal glosses. 

The first known attempt towards rectifying 
these injurious tendencies, was made by St. Euse- 
bius, bishop of Verceil, who died in 370. A monu- 
ment of his labours, which were undertaken at the 
request of pope Julius, has been preserved in the 
Codex Vercellemis ; but the results of this effort 
being far too limited to counteract the growing evil^ 
towards the close of the same century Damasus, 
then bishop of Rome, employed St. Jerome to pre- 
pare a complete edition of the canon, based upon 
existing translations, but revised by the original 
Greek of the New, and the Hebrew and Septuagint 
version of the Old, Testament. This was the pro- 
per foundation of the Vulgate Latin, or received 
text of the Romish church, which, however, did 

^ De Doct. ChrisL lib. ii. cap. II. 



68 OF THE ARAMAIC 

not assume its present fixed condition without 
being made the subject of a series of emendations, 
for better or worse, by Cassiodorus in the sixth, by 
Alcuin, under the patronage of Charlemagne, in 
the eighth, by Lanfranc of Canterbury in the ele- 
venth, century, and by many others, both before 
and since the inyention of printing. 

2. Now, among the nimiber of primitiye or ante- 
Hieronymian Latin translations, St. Augustine, in 
the place before referred to, distinguishes one of 
peculiar excellence, that he designates the Itala, 
from the diocese, as some think,^ in which it was 
in current use, — ^the Italic, of which Milan was the 
metropolis. Of this particular version a copy of 
the Gospels is generally considered to exist in the 
celebrated ms. of Brescia, (Codex Brixianus,) a 
manuscript written more than a thousand years ago, 
on purple vellum, in silver characters, which in 
many places have acquired, by time, the appearance 
of gold ; and hence the name, sometimes applied 
to the copy itself, of Codex Aureus. 

Between the version exhibited in this ancient 
document, and that of the Peschito Syriac, there 
is a remarkable harmony that demonstrates a fel- 
low relation to the same original text. The perfect 
independence of these translations, the one made 
in the East and the other in the West, considered 

• Nolan's Inquiry, preface; Cave's Govemm. of Ant. 
Church, p. 127; Allix, On the Church of Piedmont, 
cap. i. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 69 

in connexion with their mutual resemhlance^ the 
literal character of their execution^ and their 
extreme antiquity, both guarantee their general 
incorruptness, and identify them as undeniable and 
important witnesses for the archetypal Greek of 
the apostolic age. 

[The Brescia and other remaining ante-Hiero- 
nymian Latin translations were published in 1749 
by Blancbini^ a priest of the Oratorian convent of 
St. Philip^ in four stately folios^ with the title^ 
Evangeliarum Quadruplex Latirue Versionis antt" 
quay seu VeterU Italica, editum ex Codicihus manU' 
scriptia aureis, argenteis, purpureis, aliiaque, plus* 
quam millenari<B Antiquitatis. Of the five MSS. 
printed in this work^ four come under the denomi« 
nation of Itcda ; they are those of Verceil, Corbeil, 
Verona, and Brescia : the fifth, or Codex Forqjuli' 
ensis, is a corrected version of St. Jerome. A few 
years before this publication by Father Blanchini, 
Peter Sabatier, of Rheims, had edited both the Old 
and New Testaments, principally from the old 
Latin versions contained in these and the various 
Greek-Latin mss., in three volumes foho ;^ the 
first two containing the Old Testament and Apo« 
crypha, (including three versions of the Psalms,— 
the antique Itala, Jerome, and the Vulgate,) and 
the third, the New Testament.] 

The affinity between the Peschito and Itala, so 

^ Bibliorum Sacrorum LatiruB Fersiones antiqua, seu 
Vet us Jtaiicay ^c, Remis, 1743. 



70 OF THE ARAMAIC 

strongly indicated in the Brescia ms., has never 
been altogether obliterated from the Vulgate Latin. 
It appears^ especially, in the Gospels ; a circum- 
stance which is additionally accounted for by the 
corrections which that portion of the Vulgate 
receiyed from Alcuin, as mentioned in a former 
section. 

3. Some of the Oriental versions have also a 
direct dependence on the Syrian Peschito. Dupin 
affirms this of the Ethiopic, and of the Arabic 
Pentateuch published by Erpenius;® though this 
opinion has not the concurrence of the leading 
biblical critics. 

Such a relation may be affirmed, however, with 
certainty, first, of the Persian Gospels which 
Walton edited in the Polyglot, from a ms. written 
in the fourteenth century, and which retains some 
of the words of its Aramean exemplar, and omits 
passages that are wanting in no other manuscript 
or version except the Syriac ; as Matthew xxvii. 
46 ; Mark vii. 34. Secondly, of the Arabic version 
of the Epistles, published also by Erpenius ; and 
of certain unedited translations of the Psalms, the 
book of Job, and some portions of the New Testa- 
ment, in use among the Arabian Christians. 

The Armenian, too, though made from the 
Greek, (see ante, p. 45,) was afterwards retouched 
from the Peschito. 

® Dissert Prelim, sur la Bible, liv. ii. e, 4« 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 71 

Hence the value of these several translations^ in 
a critical point of view, is greatly diminished ; 
inasmuch, as being merely versions of a version, 
they cannot be cited as direct renderings of the 
inspired original, nor can their testimony be re- 
ceived as individual or separate witnesses for the 
genuineness of any particular reading. 

XII. CRITICAL USES OF THE OLD SYRIAC 

VERSION. 

The ancient translations of holy scripture, and 
especially those of the New Testament, are of 
essential importance in determining its verbal 
integrity, and the signification of a large number 
of passages in it. In the former case, by a com- 
parison of them with the best Greek manuscripts, 
we have a literal demonstration that the divine 
records have been transmitted to us in all essential 
respects unimpaired ; and that the stream of Chris- 
tian truth has flowed down to our own age, and is 
rolling onwards to bless the generations of futurity, 
as clear and copious as when it issued j&om the 
fountains of inspiration. Hence the great worth 
of such documents as the antique Itala, noticed in 
the last section ; the Coptic version, the Old Tes- 
tament portion of which is thought to have been 
made from the LXX., in the second or third cen- 
tury, and that of the New, between the third and 
the fifth; the Ethiopic, which "there is every 



72 OF THE ARAMAIC 

reason to believe was executed in the fourth 
century ; " (see Home's Introd. ii. 228 ;) the 
Gothic of Ulphilas in the fourth ; and the Armenian 
in the early part of the fifth century. But if 
these different versions have been found thus use- 
ful in these serious inquiries^ that one which takes 
precedence of all others in age and historical cha- 
racter for correctness, must possess a value too 
apparent to need an extended illustration. 

This venerable translation makes, of all others, 
the nearest approach to the authority of the 
original Greek ; and, in one point of view, may be 
said to partake of its authority, as far exceeding in 
antiquity the oldest manuscripts now extant in the 
latter language ; while the manifest advantages 
enjoyed by the translators, and the fidelity with 
which they employed them, warrant us in consi- 
dering the Peschito Syriac as the exponent of a 
very early edition of the sacred text, if not of the 
very copies which were in use among the first 
converts of the apostles. 

Moreover, as belonging to the region in which 
so large a portion of the Bible was originally 
penned, and which was the very scene of the prin- 
cipal transactions described on its pages, this 
version is found rich in turns of expression that 
place in a pecuhar light the geographic localities, 
the proper names, the usus loquendi, and many 
oriental habitudes, the apprehension of which will 
not fail to bring the student to a more interested 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 73 

and profitable acquaintance with the evangehcal 
history. 

["The Syriac translator," says John David 
JVIichaehs, "has frequently restored geographical 
names in the Greek Testament to their true Eastern 
orthography." Of this he gives several examples, 
and adds : — " The Syriac version, therefore, is the 
surest, and indeed the only, guide in discovering 
the etymology of geographical names ; for the 
Arabic versions are too modem, and in other 
translations it was impossible to preserve the 
orthography of the East." (Introd. vol. ii. p. 43.) 

[In another part of the same work, that distin- 
guished philologiBt gives the following emphatic 
testimony to the excellence of this version : " The 
Peschito is the very best translation of the Greek 
Testament that I have ever read ; that of Luther, 
though in some respects inferior to his translation 
of the Old Testament, holding the second rank. 
Of aU the Syriac authors with which I am 
acquainted, not excepting Ephrem and Bar He- 
brseus,^ its language is the most elegant and pure, 

® Gregory Bar-Hebiaeus, or AbuU Faragius, was a native 
of Malasia, near the rise of the Euphrates ; and died bishop 
of Alep, and primate of the Jacobites, in 1286. He is one of 
the most celebrated scholars of the East. In an age when an 
ahnost universal torpor and blindness had befallen the church, 
this eminent Sjrrian devoted his life to the study and exposi- 
tion of the holy scriptures, and the advancement of religious 
literature. His Horreum Mysteriorumy which is said to be 
a valuable commentary on the Bible, has never been edited ^-» 

H 



74 OF THE ARAMAIC 

not loaded with foreign words, like the Philoxenian 
and other later writings, and discovers the hand of ' 
a master in rendering those passages where the 
two idioms deviate from each other. It has no 
marks of the stifi&iess of a translation, hut is 
written with the ease and fluency of an original ; 
and this excellence of style must he ascrihed to its 
antiquity, and to its being written in a city which 
was the residence of Syrian kings." (Vol. ii. 
p. 40.)] 

Accordingly, the Peschito has been more exten- 
sively appealed to in the higher departments of 
New-Testament criticism, than any other instru- 
ment of that description. But they who are 
familiar with these subjects are aware that inter- 
preters of scripture in this country have yet a 
treasury of comparatively unexplored resources 
before them, in a more dihgent study of this 
valuable legacy of the primeyal church. 

The peculiarities of the Syriac version have been 
professedly given by Drs. Mill and Wetstein, in 
their apparatus to the New Testament. But these 
collections make no approach to completeness, and 
abound in mistakes, arising mainly from their 
having been taken, not from the Syriac text itself. 

Some extracts from it are given in the BihHotheca Orienialis 
of Asseman, tome ii. Abul Farai is best known by his 
compendium of Universal History, a work which was trans- 
lated into Latin by Pococke, and published in 2 vols. 4to, at 
Oxford, in 1663 and 1672, 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 75 

but from the Latin translations of it. The elabo- 
rate work of Dr. Mill contains hundreds of errors, 
in consequence of this short-coming. 

XIII. SUPPLEMENTS TO THE SYRIAC CANON. 

The New-Testament canon, as we have already 
remarked, has differed in extent, in the Eastern 
church, from that which has always obtained in 
the West. For though all the contents of the 
latter exist in the Aramaic language, yet the 
Peschito version, the received text of the Syrian 
church, does not include, as already said, the 
second Epistle of P^ter, the second and third 
Epistles of John, the Epistle of Jude, or the book 
of Revelation. These are not found in any manu- 
scripts of the Peschito, nor are they marked for 
public reading in the Syrian lectionary or Synax- 
arion ; and hence the observation of Father Simon, 
that the editor of the London Polyglott must have 
taken the lessons into which they are there divided 
from some more modem copy. These omissions 
in the Peschito are accounted for by De Dieu, con- 
jecturally, that though extant among the Syrians 
at a period equally early with the other parts of 
the canon, their title to a place among them had 
not then been universally agreed upon. With 
regard to the ApocalypaCy Professor Storr argues, 
that it cannot be proved that it was originally 
wanting in the Syriac version. The apparent 

H 2 



76 OF THE ARAMAIC 

obscurity of its contents, and the fear of dissemi- 
nating Chiliastic views, may have restrained the 
public use of it in the churches, and thus have 
made copies of it to be scarce : and this would 
account for the want of them in the manuscripts 
which have been brought from Mesopotamia to 
Europe : and, secondly, it is certain that the book 
of Revelation was known among the Syrians at a 
very early date, because it is quoted in the fourth 
century by Ephrem, in his ascetic writings, as a 
production of St. John the divine ; and in the 
earlier part of the third century, HippoHtus, who 
was probably bishop of Aden, in Arabia Felix, and 
was held in high estimation by the Syrians, vindi- 
cated it against the attacks of Caius : finally, in 
the second century, Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, 
quotes passages from it in his work against Her- 
mogenes.^ The Syriac Apocalypse was first edited 
by Ludovicus De Dieu, from a manuscript of 
Scaliger's, now laid up in the university library at 
Leyden.^ The four Epistles, as appears from 
internal evidence, must have been translated from 
the Greek. The age of the version is undoubtedly 
considerable, the second Epistle of St. Peter being 
quoted in Syriac by Ephrem ; though it is true 
that author might have himself translated the 
passage. The general opinion has been, that they 

^ Storr Bibl. Theolog. sect. iii. Euseb, E, H. iv. 24« 
Hug, Introd. L sect 65. 
^ No. 18. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 77 

were rendered by Mar Aba, a primate of the East^ 
between the years 535 and 552. They were firct 
printed by Dr. Pococke in 1630, from a beautiful 
manuscript belonging to the Bodleian library,^ 
accompanied with a Latin translation, and the text 
of the original Greek. The four Epistles and 
Apocalypse, together with the omitted passages in 
John yiii, and 1 John v, are now found in most 
of the printed Syriac Testaments. 

XIV. EDITIONS OF THE PESCHITO. 

Op these we wiU proceed to give a few practical 
notices, setting them down in their chronological 
order, so as to convey an idea of the history and 
state of the printed text of this ancient version. 

1. WiDMANSTAD. Vienna, 1555, in quarto. — 
Three years before this date, a manuscript copy of 
the Peschito was first brought into Europe by 
Moses of Merida, a presbyter of Mesopotamia, who 
had been sent by Ignatius, patriarch of Antioch, 
on the twofold mission of acknowledging the sub- 
mission of the Maronite church to the see of 
Rome, (then held by Julius III.,) and of printing 
for the first time their favourite text of the New 
Testament.* Such, however, was the low state of 

' A. 2909, 126. 

* He had two mss. with him, which were probably two 
continuous volumes. Indeed, the first of them, comprising 
the four Gospels, is still in the imperial library at Vienna. 
It is said to have been written at Mosul, on the Tigris. 

H 3 



78 OF THE ARAMAIC 

Oriental learning at that period in the West, that 
great difficulty was experienced in finding a com- 
petent editor for the work, till John Albert Wid- 
manstad, an eminent civilian, who had made some 
proficiency in the language,^ was moved to the 
undertaking, and assisted by Moses, with WiUiam 
Postel, was enabled, under the patronage of the 
emperor Ferdinand, to accomplish it in 1555.® 
The edition consisted of a thousand copies ; five 
hundred of which were sent into the East, and the 
remainder reserved for the emperor's own disposal. 
The beauty of this impression is admirable. Those 
books only are included which constitute the 
Syrian canon, as before enumerated. The divi- 
sions, or lessons, are indicated in tables at the 
end, as well as set forth in their proper places in 
the body of the page, in the bold Estrangelo 
character. 

II. Tremellius. In foHo. Geneva, 1569. — 
Immanuel TremeUius, of Jewish extraction, was 
Professor of Theology at Heidelburgh. His edition 

" Widmaqstad had begun the study of Syriac, as he him* 
self says, under Theseus Ambrosius, also a lawyer, who had 
derived his own knowledge of the language from some priests, 
(Acurius, Moses, and Elias by name,) who had come from 
the East to the Lateran council under Leo X. 

^ Simon (ii. 171) says 1562 ; but this date must have been 
affixed to a merely new title-page. On the original one there 
is no year ; but that of 1555 is found at the end of the pre- 
foce, at the close of the emperor's address^ and at the end of 
several of the books* 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. /<) 

of the Syriac Testament is printed in Hebrew let- 
ters, — a matter, perhaps, of necessity, as no Syriac 
types at that time were in existence, except the 
fount belonging to the imperial establishment at 
Vienna. The text is pointed according to the Chal- 
dee analogy ; and in conformity with that language 
he has characterized the third person masculine 
singular of the future of verbs by the letter yod^ 
instead of the Syrian nun. The whole is accom- 
panied with a Latin translation, which has been 
commended as literal. He dedicated the work, in 
a Latin epistle, to queen Elizabeth. 

TIL That in the Biblia Regia, or Antwerp 
Polyglott, volume the fifth, which was printed in 
1571. — Here is a twofold copy of the Peschito ; 
one in Syriac, and the other in Hebrew letters with 
Chaldee points. This department of the Antwerp 
Polyglott was conducted by Arias Montanus and 
Guy le Feyre de la Boderie, the latter of whom was 
also the author (though not without obligations to 
that of TremelHus) of the Latin version. This edi- 
tion adheres strictly to the Syrian canon, and fol- 
lows the text of Widmanstad, collated with an 
ancient ms. which had been brought from the 
Levant by Wilham Postel. 

IV. Plantin. 8vo. Antwerp, 1575 ; in Hebrew 
characters, impointed. — It has the various readings 
of the MS. last mentioned. An excellent and uni- 
form companion to the Hebrew Bible by the same 
printer* 



80 OF TUE Aramaic 

V. Plantin. 16ino. — Hebrew letters^ with 
the various readings. 

VI. Dk la Boderie. 4to. Paris, 1584. — ^This 
edition is accompanied by the Greek text, the 
Boman Vulgate, and an interlinear, though not 
Tery hteral, Latin translation. There is a long and 
singular dedication addressed to Henry III. by the 
editor, who is pronounced by J. D. Micha^is to 
have been ^' a profound linguist and a zealous advo- 
cate for the (Roman) Catholic religion, but incre- 
dibly weak and superstitious." 

VII. Elias Hutter. Norberg, 1600. — Here 
the Syriac, which is printed in Chaldee letters, is 
one of twelve languages. Hutter was the first who 
attempted to supply the books and texts deficient 
in the Syrian canon. He did this by a translation 
of his own. He also added, in the same way, the 
Epistle to the Laodiceans. The work is held but 
in slight esteem. 

VIII. Martin Trostius. 4to. Cothen, 1621. 
— ^This is in Syriac letters, and, like Widmanstad's, 
partially pointed. It has a Latin version and 
various readings. 

IX. In the Paris Polyglott. 1645. — Mons. 
Le Jay, the editor of that magnificent work, was 
assisted in this portion of it by Gabriel Sionita, 
S.T.D., a learned Maronite long resident in Europe, 
who first pointed and lined the text (in Syrian 
characters) according to the full Oriental pronun- 
ciation. In this edition are incorporated the four 



LANGtJAGE AND tERSlONS. 81 

Greneral Epistles, which had then recently been 
printed by Dr. Pococke, and the Apocalypse, with 
some emendations, jfrom the text of De Dieu. The 
Latin translation, the work of Sionita, is replete 
with inaccuracies, 

X. Bishop Walton in the London Poly- 
GLOTT. — The Syriac New Testament in the fifth 
volume of this invaluable collection was printed (in 
1657) from the text of Sionita in that of Paris. 
In addition to the supplementary parts found in 
the latter, it contains also the passage from John 
vii. 53 to viii. 1 1 . This section, which is entitled 
in Syriac, ** The lesson concerning the woman, the 
sinner, which is not in the Peschito," is prefaced 
by a notice to the effect that the following peri- 
cope, wanting in all Syriac exemplars hitherto 
made known, had then been drawn from the library 
of archbishop Usher. It does not appear that the 
document thus employed has been preserved ; nor 
does such an one stand enregistered in the Cata- 
logue of the archbishop's mss. Dr. Marsh had 
reason to be of opinion that it was taken from one 
of the later mss. of the Philoxenian version, in 
which the passage in question was written in the 
margin. The much-disputed text, 1 John v. 7, ifi^ 
not printed. 

XL iBGiDius GuTBiR. 12mo. Hamburg, 1664, 
and subsequently, with corrections, at Frank* 
fort. — A convenient and much-used edition. It 
varies, as to pointing, from the text of Sionita and- 



82 OF THE ARAMAIC 

Walton^ the editor having preferred the punctua- 
tion of an exemplar which had heen lent to him 
by M. L'Empereur, These variations, with certain 
diversities in the readings, are specified in a copi- 
ous appendix. Like Tremellius, Gutbir has inserted 
a translation of 1 John v. 7. The Latin version 
extends only to St. Matthew. This neat Syriac 
Testament^ the typography of which is uniform 
and pleasant, is generally to be obtained bound 
with a small lexicon of one hundred and twenty- 
eight pages, the work also of Dr. Gutbir. 

XII. Christian Knorre, of Bosenroth. Sultz- 
bach, 1684. — Similar to the unpointed editions of 
Plantin, in Chaldee letters. 

XIII. That of the Society de Propaganda 
Fide. Folio. Rome, 1703. — It was printed for 
the use of the Oriental churches ; but, like the Ara- 
bic version from the same press^ is not available 
for critical purposes. 

XIV. ScHAAF and Leusden. 4to. Leyden, 
1709 and 1717. — ^This is considered a more correct 
edition than preceding ones, both as to the Syriac 
text and the Latin version which accompanies it. 
That of 1717 is preferable. The vowel-points of 
a considerable portion of the first half of this work 
are arranged upon a different principle from those 
of the remainder. This discrepancy was occasioned 
by the attachment of each editor to a different sys- 
tem of punctuation. Leusden's system is employed 
as far as the one hundred and eighty fifth page of 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 83 

the first edition. Of Schaaf 's incomparable Lexi- 
con something has been said before. 

XV. Reineccius, in his "Bible in four Lan- 
guages," in three volumes folio, published at Leip- 
sig, 1750. 

XVL Jones. Tex fits sacrorum JEvaTtgeliorum 
Versionis drnpUds 8yriac€B juxta Editionem Schaaf- 
ianam, collatus cum duobus ejusdem vetustis Codd» 
Mss. in Bihliotheca Bodleiana repositis, nee nan 
cum Cod, MS. Commentarii Gregorii Bar-Hebrai 
ibidem adservato, a Ricardo Jones, 4to. Oxon. 
1805. 

XVn. Buchanan and Lee. 4to. London, 
1816. — This was published at the expense of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society ; primarily for 
the use of the Syrian Christians in India, under 
the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, 
and, after his death, the care of Professor Lee. 

XVIIL In Bagster's Polyglott. Folio and 
4to. London, 1831. — ^The Syriac version is here 
given after the text of Widmanstad, collated with 
the improved modem edition last mentioned, by 
the distinguished Orientalist who completed it. 

XIX. Bagster. 12mo. A neat edition. — ^The 
Peschito text is that of Widmanstad in 1555 ; the 
supplementary portions are from the Philoxenian. 

[The most important Manuscripts of the 
Syriac Testament, which have been brought at 
various times into Europe, are deposited in the 
following great libraries : — 



84 OF THE ARAMAIC 

!. Vienna. — These are described by Lambeciits 
and Eollar in the Commentaria de auffustissima 
Bihliotheca CtBsarea Vindohonensi, published in 
folio volumes at intervals between 1665 and 1782. 

2. Leyden, — ^As given in the Cafalogus Libro- 
rum Bihlioth. Lugduno-Batavce^ 1716 — 1741. 

3. The Vatican at Rome, — described in the 
Catalogue of Joseph Asseman^ in three vols, folio. 
Rome^ 1756. 

4. The Medicean at I'Vorence,— enumerated in 
the Bihliotheca Medicea by Stephen Evodius Asse- 
man. 1 742. 

5. The Royal Library at Paris, — described in 
the first volume of the Catahffus Codicum manu- 
scriptorum Bihliotheca Regime, Parisiis, 1739. 

6. The Bodleian at Oxford. — Of these an account 
is given in the first part of Uri's Bibliothec€B Bod- 
leiatue Codicum manfuscriptorum Orientalium Cata- 
logus, 1 787 ; whilst others in various libraries in 
England and Ireland are set forth in the Catalogi 
Librorum manuscriptorum AngluB et HibemuB in 
unum collecttB, Oxon., 1697. 

7. A remarkable Syriac copy of the Old and 
New Testament, in ample folio, was brought horn. 
India by Dr. Buchanan, and deposited, with seve- 
ral others, in the University Library at Cambridge. 
This MS., which is supposed to have been executed 
in the seventh century, is illuminated on strong 
vellum, and written in triple colu^nns, in the rough 
Estrangelo character. The sum of the words con- 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 85 

tained in every book is registered, after the man- 
ner of the Hebrew Masorites. Descriptions of this 
interesting relic may be found in the Christian 
Observer, vols. ix. and xii. ; the Rev. T. H. Home's 
" Introduction," vol. ii. p. 229 ; and in Bucha- 
nan's " Researches," p. 229.] 

XV. THE KARKAPHENSIAN VERSION. 

It was understood among Oriental scholars in 
the last century, that a version of the scriptures 
existed in a dialect of the Aramean spoken by the 
Nestorians in the mountainous parts of Assyria. 
But beyond this simple circumstance scarcely any 
thing was known of it. The work had been refer- 
red to by Asseman, in his Bibliotheca Orientalis, as 
having been frequently quoted, along with the Pes- 
chito, in the inedited commentary of Abu'l Farai, 
and designated by that writer the Karkaphensis, or 
the "mountain" version.^ In the uncertainty 
which prevailed on the subject, some conjectured 
that this Karkaphensian Syriac was a distinct 
translation, while others were of opinion that it 
was only a particular recension of the Peschito. 
The question has been set at rest in our own day 
by the investigations of the learned Romanist Pro- 

' Prater, dua alia Syriaca, prater simplicem citi pressi 
inharetf aersionis identidem citantur nimirum Heracleensis 
et Karkaphensis, hoc est Montana, qua videlicet incola mon" 
tium utuntur, — ^Absem. Biblioth, Orient,, vol. ii. p. 283. 

I 



86 OF THE ARAMAIC 

fessor (now bishop) Wiseman, who has determined 
it in favour of the latter opinion. From an exami- 
nation of a copy of this manuscript edition found 
in the Vatican, it was ascertained that the text is 
founded on the Peschito, but modified by occa- 
sional alterations, especially in the orthography of 
proper names and Grseco-Syriac words, after the 
manner of Thomas of Harkel in the Philoxenian 
version. It was prepared in the monastery of St. 
Aaron on Mount Sigara in Mesopotamia, — ^a cir- 
cumstance from which the work may have derived 
the name of Karkufita : KarkupJio signifying " the 
head," and also ** the summit of a mountain.'* 



[To those who wish to pursue more extensive 
inquiries on the subjects of these notices, the fol- 
lowing Memorandum of works expressly on this 
branch of study may not be unacceptable. 

1. Eeusch, J. W. — Syrua Interpret cum Fonte 
N, T, GrrcBci eollatus, Leipzig, 1742. 

2. MiCHAELis, J. D. — Cur€B in Fersionem Syr, 
Actvmm Apostolicorum : cum Consectanis criticis 
de Indole, Cognationibus, et Usu Vernoms Syriacte 
Tabularum Novi Fcederis, 4to. Gottingse, 1 756. 

3. Adler, G. C. — Novi Testamenti Versiones 
Syriaae, simplex Philoxeniana, et Hierosolymitana, 
denub examinattB, et ad Fidem Codicum manttscrip- 
torum Bibliothecarum Vaticance, AnglictB, Assema- 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. S7 

nianae, Medicece, Begice^ ^c. ; rums Observationibus 
atque tabulis (jsre incisis illmtrata. 4to. Hafnise^ 
1789. 

4. Wetstein. — lAbelli ad CrUin et Interpreta- 
tionem Novi Teatamenti, 8yo. Halae^ 1766. This 
Yolume^ edited by Semler^ contains the yaluable 
but scarce treatise of Dr. Glocester Eidley on the 
Syriac versions, referred to on a preceding page. 

5. Bernstein, G. H. — De Fersione N. T. Syr, 
Heracleensi Commentatio, Lipsiae, 1822. 

6. HiRZEL, Ludovicus. — De Fentateucki Ver^ 
sionis Syriacce, gmm Peachito vacant, Indole, Com-, 
mentatio critico-exegetica. 8yo. Lipsise, 1825. 

7. Wiseman, N. — HortB Syriactse, seu Commen- 
tationee et Anecdota Res vel literarias spectantia. 
8vo. Romae. Compared with Dr. Lee's Prolego- 
mena to Bagster's Polyglott, pp. 41, 42, of the 
4to. edition. 

8. Credner, C. a. — De Prophetarum Minorum 
Versionis Syr, quam Peschito dicunt indole, Dw- 
sertationes philologico-^tica. Disaertatio i. Get- 
ting. 1827. 8vo. 

9. Lengerke, C. — Commentatio Critica de 
Ephrtjemo Syro, S. S. interprete ; qud aimul ver- 
aionia Syr. quam Pesckito vocant, lectiones varus 
ex Epkrami commentariis collected exhibentur, 
Halse, 1828. 4to.] 



I 2 



88 OF THE ARAMAIC 



XVI. OP THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATIONS. 

With regard to these, the writer may be per- 
mitted to state, that the diffidence with which he 
submits them has been much increased by the 
want of some critical Mend possessed of sufficient 
leisure to inspect the undertaking, and to afford 
him the adyantages of his counsel. This deficiency 
he has endeavoured to remedy by the use of some 
of the valuable authors already referred to, and by 
repeated and studious revisions of the work itself. 

But, after all his efforts, the translator is pain^ 
fuUy sensible that the version falls greatly below 
the standard of excellence which he had presumed 
to contemplate ; and he now offers it, not only for 
the perusal of the general reader, whose edifica- 
tion, he is convinced, as a portion of the holy 
scriptures, it is able to advance, but also for the 
examination, and, where needed, the critical emen- 
dation, of better scholars than himself. He would 
not, therefore, say, that (in customary phrase) he 
throws himself upon the indulgence of his readers, 
inasmuch as a failure in a work of this kind does 
not admit of toleration consistently with integrity 
in the judge of it. The word of God must not 
be trifled with ; and to denounce an incorrect or 
unworthy representation of its teachings, is a duty 
that is owing to the church and the world. So 
far, then, from deprecating a competent criticis^n 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 89 

he will esteem the faithful^ kind, and honourahle 
exercise of it, a fayour to himself, and a service to 
the branch of study to which the present volume 
is dedicated. 

It will be proper to observe, that the transla- 
tions have been made directly from the Syrian 
text, and not from any version of it in any other 
language ; though it is but honesty to state, that 
having had the Latin ones of Walton, Gutbir, (on 
St. Matthew,) and Schaaf, at hand, the vniter 
often felt a natural curiosity to compare them with 
his own, and did so in several places with consi- 
derable advantage. 

It has been also his study to render the 
Syriac as Uterally as the structure of the two lan- 
guages would allow ; his object having been, not 
merely to execute a translation of the Gospel and 
Epistle now offered, but to present as faithfully as 
possible a representation of the peculiar cast of 
expression which they possess in the venerable 
text of the Oriental church. 

On this account, the ordinary choice enjoyed by 
a translator between the literal and the free method 
of rendering his subject could not be exercised; 
since the translation here, to be of any specific 
utiUty to the biblical student unacquainted vrith 
Aramaic, must, of necessity, be given €ui verbum. 
It should be such a version as that defined by a 
great master in the science of interpretation : " an 
exact image of the original or archetype, in which 

1 3 



90 OF THE ARAMAIC 

image nothing should be drawn either greater or 
less^ better or worse, than the original; but so 
composed, that it might be acknowledged as 
another original itself. It follows, that a transla- 
tor should use those words, and those only, which 
clearly express all the meaning of the author, and 
in the same manner as the author."® And this 
has been humbly, but strenuously, attempted in 
the present undertaking, both with regard to the 
grammatical signification of words and their collo- 
cated order. To render the text literally, however, 
in all its parts, could not be done without li^sing 
into barbarism : but the cases which seemed to 
require some latitude of expression, whether in the 
enallage of a tense, the transposition of a member 
of a sentence, or the metaphrase of an idiom after 
the sense rather than the letter, have never been 
yielded to without reluctance.^ 

It need not be remarked, that such a plan 
would not admit of an artificial elegance of style, 
after the manner, for example, of Gastalio, and 
others. Had the writer been ambitious of any 
thing of this kind, he must have sought for some 
more appropriate document on which to make the 
essay : for the task which it has been his sacred 
delight to fulfil, almost forbad even a paraphrast- 
ical expression, and demanded that verbal faithful- 

^ E&NESTi, ed. Henderson, p. 135. 
^ The more considerable idioms have been set down in die 
- argin. 



LANGUAGE AND VERSIONS. 91 

ness to the original ; that scrupulous parsimony 
and careful pondering of words ; that fenacitas 
verborunif cum jperspicuitate sententuB, which St. 
Augustine so commends in the unpolished Italic 
version;^ that determination^ in short, to trans- 
late literally, not diffusively ; to employ such words, 
and those all in meaning, numher, and colloca- 
tion, as would hest delineate a true copy of the 
original; and, (following the principle laid down 
hy Motus,) so " to exhibit the writer's thoughts in 
our own language, as to make it apparent, that 
had he himself used our language, he would have 
expressed this proverb, that exclamation, that for- 
mula of speech, just as the translator has done."^ 
But when we apply such a principle to the render- 
ing of THE TRUE SAYINGS OF GOD, WC may WcU 

ask, with the deepest awe, "Who is sufficient for 
these things ? " 

^ Aug. De Doct, Chr.y lib. ii. 

^ Mo&us, Dissert, de Disctimine Sensus et Significa^ 
iione, S/^c. 



ON THE 



ORIGINAL LANGUAGE 



OF 



ST. MATTHEW^S GOSPEL. 



The Gospel of St. Matthew^ for dignity of sub- 
ject-matter^ simplicity and beauty of style, and 
repleteness with the great txuths of saltation, is 
worthy of its position in the archives of the New 
Covenant. It is a history, communicated by the 
Deity himself, of that vast transaction by which 
eternal life has been recovered to us by Him " who 
waa delivered for our offences, and raised again for 
our justification." But it is more than history, 
even though inspired ; it bears the character, in 
common with the other evangelical scriptures, of a 
document which not only recounts the cost and 
manner of our Ransom, but declares as well the 
mind, the purposes, and promises of a reconciled 
God to his redeemed creatures. Thus we may 
regard it as one of the title-deeds which the hand 
of Inspiration has indited, sealed, and made over 



ON THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE, &C. 93 

to our world, to attest the reality of our redemp- 
tion by the mediation of the Grod-Man, and to 
assure the believer of his true and inviolable right 
to immortality and heaven. 

To dwell, however, on the theological contents 
of this precious record, in the way of comment or 
exposition, does not come within the scope of the 
present article, which, serving as a kind of preface 
to the translation of the Gospel itself, is designed, 
to refer exclusively to the language in which it 
first proceeded from the pen of the evangelist. 
This has been long a subject of extensive contro-. 
versy, and one that, judging from recent indica- 
tions, still occupies considerable attention among 
divines on the Continent. 

While many eminent modems have regarded the 
ordinary Greek text as the archetype, the general 
tenor of ancient tradition would lead to the behef 
that St. Matthew wrote in the vernacular dialect of 
Judea ; which, as we have seen, was at that time 
the Palestinian Syriac, then (and afterwards by 
the early ecclesiastical writers) called " Hebrew." 

Certainly many a priori considerations would 
favour such a conjecture, even were there no direct 
evidences to confirm it. The announcements of 
revelation had hitherto been embodied in Hebrew. 
The apostolical commission enjoined that the Gos- 
pel should be first preached to the Hebrew nation. 
The primeval church consisted mainly of Hebrew 
converts ; and hence the manifest propriety of a 



94 ON THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE 

summary of tlie eyangelical history and doctrine 
for the use of that church in their own tongue^ as 
well as for the information and conversion of their 
Jewish brethren^ who continued to use that lan- 
guage in Palestine and various countries of the 
East. 

Now, when we turn to the testimony of authen- 
tic tradition, (and on points like these its author- 
ity i« legitimate and valuable,) we find it decisively 
affirming that such a provision was made, in the 
Oospel before us. The evidence is, in substance, 
as foUowB : — 

I. Papias, a contemporary of Polycarp, and, 
according to Irenseus, a disciple of St. John, 
declares that ** Matthew wrote his Grospel ESpuih 
SiaAsxro), *iB the Hebrew dialect,* which every 
one interpreted as he waa able/* Eusebius, 
Hist. Eceles, lib. iii. cap. 39. 

II. Irenaus, a disciple of Polycarp, and bishop 
of Lyons, speaking of the four Grospels, says, 
** Matthew among the Hebrews wrote a Gospel in 
their own language, while Peter and Paul were 
preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding the 
church there." Apud Euseb. Hist, Eccles. Hb. v. 
cap. 8. In a fragment, also, of Ireneeus, edited by 
Dr. Grabe, it is said that " the Gospel according to 
Matthew was written to the Jews, for they earnestly 
desired a Messiah of the posterity of David. Mat- 
thew, in order to satisfy them on this point, began 



OP ST. Matthew's gospel. 95 

his Gk>spel with the genealogy g£ Jesus.'* Spicileg. 
Patrum, torn. i. 

III. The learned Alexandrian catechist, Pant^- 
Nus, (in the second century,) in his missionaiy 
travds in India, found there, in the hands of seve- 
ral who had already heard of Christ, the Gospel of 
St. Matthew, written in the Hebrew language, 
which Bartholomew, one of the apostles who had 
preached there, had deHvered to them. Euseb., 
lib. Y. cap. 10. 

IV. Origen (whose words are handed down by 
Eusehius, Hb. vi. cap. 25) has this statement : ** I 
have learned by tradition concerning the four Gos- 
pels, which alone are received without dispute by 
the church of God under heaven, (that) the first 
was written by St. Matthew, once a tax-gatherer,, 
afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ, who pub- 
lished it for the benefit of the Jewish converts^ 
composed in the Hebrew language.'* And again,, 
in his Commentary on John : " We begin with 
Matthew, who, according to tradition, wrote first, 
pubHshing his Gospel to the behevers who were of 
the circumcision." 

V. EusEBius, who had collected the foregoing 
testimonies on a subject which, in that day, seems 
to have been considered as unquestionable, thus 
records what he evidently believed to be the his- 
torical fact : " Matthew, having first preached to 
the Hebrews, dehvered to them, when he was pre- 
paring to depart to other countries, his Gospel 



96 ON TBE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE 

.composed in their native language." Hist,, lib. iii. 
cap. 24. 

VI. Jerome affirms that "Matthew composed 
the Gospel of Christ in the Hebrew language, and 
wrote it with Hebrew letters ; but who the person 
was who afterwards translated it into Greek, is 
not satisfactorily known." Catalog, Viror, Elustr,, 
voce Matth^us. 

YII. The SUBSCRIPTIONS to many mss. and 
versions bear the same testimony. Various import- 
ant Greek codices of Matthew close with the state- 
ment that he wrote his work in Hebrew ; and with 
this the Syriac and Arabic versions are coincident. 
The subscription of the former is found in the pro- 
per place in the present volume ; and that of the 
Arabic reads as follows : " Here ends the copy of 
the Gospel of the apostie Matthew. He wrote it 
in the land of Palestine, by the inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit, in the Hebrew language, eight years 
after the bodily ascension of Jesus the Messiah into 
heaven, and in the first year of the Roman empe- 
ror, Claudius Caesar." 

VIII. The same tradition held undisturbed cur- 
rency in the church in following ages, as appears 
from successive statements in the works of Doro- 
theus, Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, 
G. Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, 
and Nicephorus GaUisti ; and, among the Orientals, 
those of Barsalibseus, Ab'ul Farai, and Ebed Jesu ; 
the testimonies of most of whom may be found in 



OF ST. Matthew's gospel. V7 

the elaborate treatises of Nathanael Lardner and 
Schroder. 

Of the biblical critics who have yielded to the 
fore 2 of these testimonies, we may mention Alber, 
Bellarmine, Casaubon, Calmet, Cave, Campbell, 
Adam Clarke, Du Pin, Eichhom, Hammond, Har- 
wood, MichaeUs, Mill, Owen, Pritius, Simon, and 
Tillemont. There are others, however, of equal 
eminence who as strenuously contend for a Greek 
original. Of this class are Beausobre, Calvin, Le 
Clerc, Edelmann, Erasmus, Fritsche, Hales, Hug, 
Lardner, Masch, Richard Watson, and Wetstein. 
The arguments, however, of these distinguished 
men (a summary of which may be seen in the Rev. 
Hartwell Home's " Introduction," vol. iv. p. 262) 
have failed to invalidate the force of that tradition- 
ary evidence which must ever give the balance in 
favour of a Hebrew autograph. 

But, after all, may there not be truth on both 
sides ? That St. Matthew wrote in Hebrew, is the 
averment of all antiquity ; but this may not be an 
exclusive fact, inasmuch as the canonical Greek 
Gospel may be a rendering, by the inspired evange- 
list himself, of the record that he had previously 
made in the language of Palestine. This principle, 
which is by no means a recent one, and which has 
of late years been extensively entertained, obviates 
the serious difficulties of the subject, by harmoniz- 
ing the argument arising from the univocal tradi- 
tion of the ancient church, with that so strongly 

K 



D8 ON THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE 

urged by writers who have taken the opposite view, 
deducible from the deep character of originality 
impressed upon the Greek text. 



The Nazarenes and Ebionites, who were the 
immediate descendants of the first Jewish converts 
to Christianity, were in possession of a Grospel writ- 
ten with Hebrew letters in the Chaldee dialect,^ 
which bore the interchangeable titles of " the Gos- 
pel according to the Hebrews," "the Gospel of 
Matthew," "of the Apostles," and "of the 
Twelve."^ Though the existence of this work was 
not unknown both in the Greek and Latin churches, 
yet, from its extreme scarceness, and the almost 
universal ignorance among Christians of the lan- 
guage in which it was written, but very few of the 
early ecclesiastical writers have spoken of it with 
the certainty resulting from personal acquaintance. 
Origen not infrequently quotes it,^ but never as 



' Jerome adv, Pelagianos, Op,, iv. 533. 

^ Some think that the Gospel of the Nazarenes, and that 
used by the Ebionites, were distinct works : the greater like- 
lihood is, that they once had the same textual ground-work, 
but had been separately subjected to different mutilations 
and additions. From the few fragments that remain, it 
would appear that the Nazarene copies retained the larger 
measure of resemblance to the originaL 

^ Comment, in Matt,, et alibu 



OP ST, Matthew's gospel. 99 

possessing the same anthority as an unquestionably 
inspired and uncorrupted record ; and St. Jerome 
showed the opinion he had formed of its import- 
ance, both by transcribing a copy of it himself^ 
and translating it into Greek and Latin .^ 

There can be Httle doubt that the Nazarene Gos- 
pel was founded upon the original Aramaic docu- 
ment of St. Matthew. That such was Jerome's 
conviction, is evident from his own words. " Mat- 
thew," says he, " composed the Gospel of Christ 
in the Hebrew language, and wrote it with Hebrew 
letters. There is, moreover, at present in the Csesa- 
rean library (for which we are indebted to the dis- 
tinguished zeal and industry of the martyr Pam- 
philus) a copy of the Hebrew itself. And it was 
by the Nazarenes of Bersea, a city of Syria, who 
use this book, that I was enabled to make a tran- 
script of it," (Catal, Fir. Illustr,) Again : " In 
the Hebrew Gospel according to the apostles, or, 
as is generally supposed, according to Matthew, 
which is indeed written in the Syro-Chaldee lan- 
guage, but with Hebrew letters, which the Naza- 
renes use even at the present day," &c. (Dialog, 
contra Pelagianos.) And again : " In the Gospel 
which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use, which I 
lately" translated from Hebrew into Greek, and 
which is by most persons called *the authentic 
Gospel of Matthew,'" &c. (Comment, in Matt.) 

* De Vir, Illustr.y Op,, iv. 102. 
K 2 



100 ON THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE 

Nevertheless, the translations of Jerome, the 
corrupted copies of the Nazarenes and Ebionites, 
and the original exemplar itself, have alike perished. 
Nor is it difficult to account for such a fate. The 
work itself appears to have been designed from the 
first for a particular people, sufficient provision 
being made for the communication of the same 
doctrines, facts, and even expressions included in 
it, to the church at large, through the medium of 
the canonical Greek text. While the scriptures of 
the Greek New Testament kept pace in their diffu- 
sion with the progress of Christianity itself, the 
Hebrew Gospel remained in the exclusive posses-, 
sion of the descendants of the parties for whose use 
it had been written, who sufficiently proved their 
unworthiness of such a trust by those mutilations 
and corruptions of the sacred text by which they 
sought to justify their own aberrations from the 
truth. Thus the record itself soon became too 
intrinsically worthless to create regret for its loss. 
The Nazarenes themselves passed away, and their 
favourite Gospel soon ceased to be known among 
men. Some exemplars may have been preserved 
for a time in pubHc collections of mss., (as was 
the case with that one in the library at Csesarea,) 
but these would not survive the devastation to 
which the country was destined to be so repeatedly 
subject firom the Saracens and other invaders, nor 
is it probable that a solitary copy is now in exist- 
ence. 



OF ST. Matthew's gospel. 101 

From a manuscript of a Hebrew Gospel of St. 
Matthew^ Sebastian Munster printed an edition at 
Basil, in 1557, with the title of Towrath Hame- 
SHiACH.^ This is generally thought to be a trans- 
lation made from the Latin Vulgate, by a Jewish 
convert, between the twelfth and the sixteenth cen- 
tury. The dialect is modem Rabbinic. As his 
document was not in all places complete, the editor 
himself supplied the deficiencies. On all these 
grounds the work, it will be seen, can possess no 
critical importance. 

Jean de Tillet, a bishop of Brieux, published 
also, at Paris, in 1555, a Hebrew edition of St. 
Matthew, from a copy (procured at Rome) of what 
appears to have been the same version as that 
printed by Munster, but with material variations 
in the manuscripts. 

» " The Law of the Messiah." 



K 3 



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* 



THE HOLT GOSPEL : 



THE PREACHING 



OF 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 



BY THE POWER OF JESHU MESHICHA, 

OUR LORD AND OUR GOD, 

WE BEGIN TO WHITE THE SCRIPTURE OF THE HOLY 
GOSPEL ; 

AND FIRST, THE GOSPEL, THE PREACHING OF MATHAI. 



I. iTcrr i^t Uxit Bkj$ in tt^t W!Sit^ httaxt f^t 

I. The scripture of the Generation of Jeshu, 
the Meshicha, son of David, son of Abrohom^ 
Abrohom begat Ischok ; Isehok begat Jakub ; 
Jakub begat Jihudo and his brethren ; Jihudo 
begat Pharets and Zoroch from Thomar ; Pharets 
begat Chetsron ; Chetsron begat Orom ; Orom 
begat Aminodob ; Aminodob begat Nachshun : 
Nachshun begat Sahnun ; Sahnun begat Booz from 
Rochab ; Booz begat Ubid from Ruth ; Ubid begat 
Ishai ; Ishai begat David the king ; David begat 
Shelemun from the wife of Una ; Shelemun begat 
Bechebam ; Rechebam begat Abio ; Abio begat 
Oso ; Oso begat Johushaphat ; Johushaphat begat 
Jurom ; Jurom begat Uzio ; Uzio begat Juthom ; 
Juthom begat Ochoz ; Ochoz begat Chezakio ; 



106 THE PREACHING OF 

ChezaMo begat Menashe ; Menashe begat Amun ; 
Amun begat Jushio ; Jushio begat Jucania and bis 
bretbren at (the time of) the carrying away (to) 
Bobel ; and after the carrying away to Bobel Juca- 
nia begat Shelathiel ; Shelathiel begat Zurbobel ; 
Zurbobel begat Obiud ; Obiud begat Ehakim ; 
Eliakim begat Azur ; Azur begat Zoduk ; Zoduk 
begat Achin ; Achin begat Eliud ; Eliud begat 
Ehazar ; Eliazar begat Mathan ; Mathan begat 
Jaknb ; Jakub begat Janseph the husband of 
Mariam^ of whom was bom Jeshu who is called 
THE Meshicha. 

Thus all the generations from Abrohom to 
David (were) fourteen generations ; and from 
David to the fexile of Bobel, fourteen generations ; 
and from the exile of Bobel to the Meshicha, four-> 
teen generations. 

Now the nativity of Jeshu the Meshicha was 
thus : While Mariam his mother was betrothed to 
Jauseph, before they could be consociated, she was 
found to be with child from the Spirit of Holiness. 
But Jauseph her husband was just, and, not willing 
to defame her, meditated privately to release her. 
But while (on) these (things) he reflected, an 
angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and 
said to him, Jauseph, son of David, fear not to 
take Mariam thy wife ; for that which is conceived 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE* 107 

in her is from the Spirit of Holiness. She shall 
give hirth to the son^ and thou shalt call his name 
Jeshu ; for he shall save his people from their sins. 
Now all this was done, that what was spoken from 
the Lord hy^ the prophet might he fulfilled: 
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall 
bring forth the son, and they shaU call his name 
Amanuel ; which is interpreted. With us (is) our 
God. Then Jauseph, when he had arisen from bis 
sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded 
him, and took unto him his wife ; and knew her 
not until she had given birth to her son, the first- 
bom, and she called his name Jeshu. 

III. ehmiau at tfyt i^mitsi. 

II. Now when Jeshu was bom in Beth-lechem 
of Jehudo, in the days of Herodes the king, there 
came Magians^ from the East to Urishlem: and 
they said. Where is the king of the Jews,^ who is 
bom ? for we have seen his star in the east, and 
have come to worship him. But Herodes the 
king heard, and was troubled, and all Urishlem 
with him. And he assembled all the chief priests 
and scribes of the people, and anxiously inquired 
(partic. pahel) of them where the Meshicha should 
be bom ? But they said, in Beth-lechem of Je- 
hudo ; for so it is written in the prophet : Also 

^ By the hand of the prophet. ^ Magushee. 

' Jihudoyee. 



108 ' THE PREACHING OF 

c - -^ ■ ... 

thou Beth-lechem of Jehudo wast not the least 
among the kings of Jehudo ; for from thee shall 
come forth the king who shall he as a shepherd to 
my people Isroel. 

Then Herodes privately called the Magians, and 
learned from them at what time the star appeared 
to them : and he sent them to Beth-lechem, and 
said to them. Go and inquire dihgently concerning 
the child, and when ye have found him, come show 
me, and I also will go and will worship him. But 
they, when they had heard the king, went forth ; 
and, lo, the star, which they had seen in the 
east, proceeded before them, until it came and 
stood over against where the child was. Now 
when they saw the star, they rejoiced with very 
great joy. And they entered the house, and beheld 
the child with Mariam his mother ; and they fell 
down, and worshipped him. And they opened 
their treasures, and offered unto him oblations ; 
gold, and myrrh, and frankincense. And it was 
shown to them in a dream, that they should not 
return unto Herodes ; so, by another way, they 
went unto their place. 

IV. MfiT^ixiU Of tt^t S>^vi^Ux of tt^t Snlant)^* 

And when they were gone, the angel of the 
Lord appeared in a dream unto Jauseph, and said 
to him. Arise, take the child and his mother, and 
flee into Metsreen, and there be until I tell thee ; 



ATATHAI TH£ APOSTLE. 1,09 

for it will be that Herodes will seek the child, that 
he may destroy him. Then Jauseph arose, took 
up the child and his mother, and fled by night 
into Metsreen. And was there until the death of 
Herodes. That it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken from the Lord by the prophet, saying. Out 
of Metsreen have I called my son. 

Then Herodes, when he saw that he had been 
deluded by the Magians, was greatly wroth, and 
sent (and) killed all the children of Beth-lechem, 
and all its Kmits,^ from two years- and under, 
according to the time which he had inquired from 
the Magians. Then was fulfilled what was spoken 
by Eramio the prophet, who said, A cry was heard 
in Rometha ; weeping and great lamentation ; 
Rochel weeping for her children, and not willing 
to be comforted, because they are not. 

But when Herodes, the king, was dead, the- 
angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Jauseph 
in Metsreen, and said to him. Arise, take the child' 
and his mother, and go into the land of Isroel; 
for they are dead who sought the life of the child. 
And Jauseph arose, (and) took the child and his; 
mother, and came into the land of Isroel. Bufc 
when he heard that Arkelaos was the king m^ 

* A son of two years.. 



110 THE PREACHING OF 

Jehud, instead of Herodes his father, he was afraid 
to go thither : and it was shown to him in a 
dream, that he should go into the region of Galilo. 
And he came and dwelt in a city which is called 
Natsrath. So would he fulfilled that which was 
spoken hy the prophet, that a Nazarene^ he should 
he called. 

VI. iftKit at ftft i^ifif^mp. 

Now in those days came Juchanan the Bap- 
tizer preaching in the desert of Jehud, and say- 
ing, Bepent ! the kingdom of heaven hath drawn 
nigh. For this is he of whom it was spoken 
hy Eshaio the prophet : The voice which crieth in 
the desert. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
his paths plain. But this Juchanan, his clothing 
was of the hair of camels, with a loins-belt of 
leather upon his loins ; and his food was locusts 
and wilderness-honey. 

Then went forth to him Urishlem, and all Jehud, 
and the whole country about Jurdan ; and were 
baptized of him in Jurdan, the river> while they 
were confessing their sins. 

But when he saw many of the Pharishee and 
Zodukoyee coming to be baptized, he said to them, 
Greneration of vipers, who hath showed you to 
escape from the wrath that cometh ? Work> there- 

* Natsroio. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. Ill 

fore, fruits which are suitable to repentance. Nei- 
ther ruminate and say within yourselves, that Abro- 
hom is father to us ; for I say to you that God is 
able fix)m these stones to raise up sons unto Abro- 
horn : But, behold, the axe lieth at the root of the 
trees ; every tree, therefore, which maketh not 
good fruit is cut down and falleth into the fire. I, 
indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance ; 
but He who cometh after me is mightier than I ; 
he, whose sandals I am not worthy to bear, — ^he 
baptizeth you with the Spirit of holiness and with 
fire. He (it is) whose fan is in his hand, and, puri- 
fying his floors, the wheat he gathereth into his 
garner, but the chaff he bumeth with the fire that 
is not quenched. 

Then came Jeshu from Galilo unto Jurdan to 
Juchanan to be baptized of him. But Juchanan 
prohibited him, and said, I need from thee to be 
baptized, and hast thou come unto me ? But Jeshu 
answered and said unto him. Permit [this] now ; 
for thus it becometh us to accompHsh all righte- 
ousness. And then he permitted him. But when 
Jeshu was baptized, he immediately ascended from 
the waters ; and the heaven was opened unto him ; 
and he saw the Spirit of God, who descended, like 
the dove, and came upon him. And, lo, the voice 
from heaven, which said. This (is) my Son, the 
Beloved, in whom I have delighted. 



L 2 



112 THE PREACHING OP 

VII. dfltrr t^e firiSt ©ag (n tt^t ^Kleeit tamtamtixtfi 

Then Jeshxi was led by the Spirit of holiness 
into the desert, that he should be tempted by 
the Accuser. And he fasted forty days and forty 
nights ; but afterward he hungered. And he who 
tempteth approadied and said. If the Son thou art 
of God, say that these stones shall become bread. 
But he answered and said. It is written that not 
by bread alone hveth the Son of man, but by every 
word which proceedeth from the mouth of God. 
Then the Accuser taketh him to the holy city, and 
caused him to stand on the pinnacle of the temple ; 
and said to him. If the Son thou art of God, throw 
thyself down ; for it is written that his angels he 
shall command concerning thee, and upon their 
hands they shall bear thee that thou strike not 
against a stone thy foot. Jeshu said to him. Again 
it is written. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
God. Again the Accuser took him to a mountain 
which is exceeding high, and showed him aU the 
kingdoms of the world and their glory : And said 
to him. These aU to thee will I give, if thou wilt 
faU and worship me. Then said Jeshu to him. 
Away with thee, Sotono ! for it is written that the 
Lord thy God thou shalt worship, and him only 
thou shalt serve. Then the Accuser left him, and, 
behold, the angels drew nigh and ministered unto 
Mm. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 113 



VIII. jF0t t|)e ftan Bkq in tt^t TOeelt after tt^t 

But when Jeshu heard that Juchanan was per- 
fected, he removed into Galilo. And he left Nats- 
rath and came and dwelt in Eephar-Nachum hy 
the sea-side^ on the borders of Zabolon and of 
NapthoH. That the thing might be fulfilled which 
was spoken by the prophet Eshaia, who said. The 
land of Zabolon, the land of Napthoh, the way of 
the sea beyond Jordan Gralilo of the peoples. 
The people who sat in darkness the great light 
hath seen, and they who have sat in the region 
and shadow of death, the hght has arisen upon 
them. 

From that time began Jeshu to preach, and to 
say. Repent ! for the kingdom of heaven hath 
drawn nigh. And while he walked by the sea of 
Gralilo, he saw two brethren, Shemun who was 
called Kiph^ and Andreas his brother, who were 
casting their nets into the sea, for they were fish- 
ers. And Jeshu said to them. Come after me, and 
I will make you to become fishers of men. And 
they immediately forsook their nets and went after 
him. And when he had passed thence he saw two 
other brethren, Jakub-bar-Zabdai and Juchanan 
his brother, in a vessel with Zabdai their father, 

® By the hand of the sea. 
L 3 



114 l-fiE PREACHING OP 

repairing their nets : and Jeshu called them ; and 
they forthwith left the vessel and their father, and 
went after him. 

And Jeshu perambulated all Gralilo, and taught 
in their synagogues,"^ and preached the announce- 
ment of the kingdom, and healed all disease and 
affiction in the people. And his fame was heard 
in all Suria; and they brought to him all those 
who were grievously affected with various diseases, 
and those who were pressed down by strong pains, 
and demoniacs, and lunatics, and the paralysed ; 
and he healed them. And there went after him 
great gatherings from Galilo, and i&om the ten 
cities, and from Urishlem, and from Jehud, and 
from beyond Jurdan. 

IX. t!!:^t ^o^tlt^ atOr patrtarc!)i$« 

But when Jeshu saw the multitudes, he as- 
cended a mountain : and when he had sat down, 
his disciples drew near to him ; and he opened his 
mouth and taught them, saying : 

Blessed (are) the poor in spirit, for theirs is 
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed the mourners, for 
they shall be comforted. Blessed the meek, for 
they shall inherit the earth. Blessed they who 
hunger and thirst Unto righteousness, for they shall 
be satisfied. Blessed the merciftd, for upon them 

7 Or assemblies, congregations. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 115 

shall be mercy. Blessed they who are pure in their 
hearts, for they shall see God. Blessed the makers 
of peace, for the children of God shall they be 
caUed. Blessed they who are persecuted because 
of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven. Blessed are ye when they treat you with 
reviling, and persecute you, and say concerning you 
every evil word, for my sake, in falsity. Then be 
glad and exult, for your reward is great in heaven ; 
for so persecuted they the prophets who were 
before you. 

Ye are the salt of the earth : but if it happen 
that salt become tasteless, with what shall it be 
seasoned ? It goe.th for nothing but to be thrown 
without and trodden down by men. Ye are the 
light of the world. It is not possible that a city 
which is built upon an hill can be hidden. Nor 
do they kindle a lamp and place it beneath a mea- 
sure, but on a candlestick, and it enlighteneth all 
who are in the house. So let your light shine 
before the sons of men, that they may see your 
good works, and glorify your Father who is in 
heaven. 

Think not that I came to loose the law or the 
prophets : not that I might loose, but that I might 
fulfil. For, Amen I say unto you, that until hea- 
ven and earth shall pass away, one yod, or one 
point,^ shall not pass from the law, till all be done. 

® " One '\me,''*~^Codex Vienniensis. 



116 THE PREACHING OF 

Every one, therefore, who sluill sefr loose one from 
these least commandments, and shall so teach the 
children of men, the least shall he he called in the 
kingdom of heaven : but every one who shall do 
and teach [them], this [one] shall be called great 
in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that 
unless your righteousness shall abound more than 
that of the scribes^ and the Pharishee, ye shall 
not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

X. ^ixts Moxnixifi at i^t Sx^t Wit^ of i^t 

Ye have heard that it was said unto them who 
were before. Thou shalt not kill ; and whosoever 
shall kill is obnoxious to the judgment. But I 
say unto you,^ that he who is angry against his 
brother rashly, is obnoxious to the judgment ; and 
he who shall say to his brother. Thou empty one ! 
is liable to the council ; and every one who shall 
say, Thou fool ! is liable to the gihano of fire. If 
it occur, therefore, that thou bring thy oblation to 
the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother 
retaineth some enmity against thee ; leave there thy 
oblation at the altar, and go, first be reconciled 
with thy brother, and then come and oflFer thy 
oblation. Be at one with thine adversary ^ quickly, 
while thou art with him in the way ; lest thy 

^ Sophree. ^ But I, (even) I, say, &c. 

* Beel-dino, "lord of strife." 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 117 

adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge 
deliver thee to the exactor, and thou fall into the 
house of the bound. And, Amen I say unto thee, 
that thou shalt not come forth from thence till 
thou hast rendered the last shamuna;^ 

Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt 
not commit adultery. But I say to you, that every 
one vrho beholdeth a woman so as that he shall 
desire her, already committeth adultery in his heart. 
But if thy right eye cause thee to ofifend, root it 
out and cast it from thee : it is better to thee that 
one of thy members should perish, than that thy 
whole body should fall into gihano. And if thy 
right hand cause thee to offend, cut it off and cast 
it from thee ; for it is better to thee that one i&om 
thy members should perish, rather than thy whole 
body should fall into gihano. 

It hath been said, that he who looseth his wife 
should give her a writing of divorcement. But I 
say imto you, that whosoever looseth his wife, 
except on account of fornication, maketh her to 
commit adultery ; and whosoever taketh her who 
is sent away, committeth adultery. Again, ye have 
heard it was said to those beforetime. Thou shalt 
not he in thine oaths, but shalt fulfil thy oaths 
unto the Lord. But I say unto you. Swear not at 
all : not by heaven, for it is the throne of God ; 
nor by earth, for it is the foot-stool beneath his 

^ A minute coin, in value the one-eighth of the asor, or 
assarius ; from the Hebrew shem<mehy " eight." 



118 ' THE PREACHING OT 

feet ; neither by UriBhlem^ for it is the city of the 
great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head^ 
for thou canst not make a single hair in it either 
black or vhite. But let your discourse be. Yea, 
yea ; Nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more than these 
is from the evil. 

Ye have heard that it hath been said. An eye for 
an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto 
you, that ye shall not rise up against evil : but if 
any one strike thee on the right cheek, turn to 
him the other also. And if any one will contend 
with thee to take away thy tunic, leave him thy 
mantle also ; and if a man compel thee one mile, 
go with him twain. Give to him who asketh from 
thee, and him who would borrow from thee refuse 
not. 

Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou 
shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy .^ 
But I say unto you. Love your enemies; bless 
them who execrate you ; do that which is good to 
him who hateth you ; and pray for them who lead 
you with a chain, and persecute you. That ye may 
be the children of your Father who is in heaven, 
who causeth his sxm to arise on the good and on 
the evil, and who sendeth showers on the just and 
on the unjust. For if ye love those (only) who 
love you, what reward have ye ? do not even the 
tribute-gatherers this ? And if ye wish peace to 

* Master of enmity. 



MATHAf THE APOSTLE. 119 

your brethren only, what more do ye than they ? 
do not also the tribute-gatherers this? Be ye 
therefore perfect, as your Father who is in heaven 
is perfect I 

XI. jFourtl) Moxnixiu in ft^t fbcit tsat€k of ft^t 

See that in your ahnsgiving ye do it not be- 
fore men, so as that ye may be observed by them; 
otherwise no reward is for you with your Father 
who is in heaven. When, therefore, thou art doing 
alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as do the 
assumers of faces in the assemblies and streets, so 
that they may be praised from men ; and. Amen I 
say to you, they receive their reward. But thou, 
when thou art doing thy alms, let not thy left 
hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine 
alms may be in secret ; and thy Father, who seeth 
in secret, shall recompense thee in openness. 

And when thou prayest, be not as the face-takers, 
who love to stand in the assemblies and at the cor- 
ners of the streets to pray, that they may.be seen 
of men ;^ and truly I say to you that they receive 
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter 
into thy secret chamber, and shut thy door, and 
pray to thy Father who is in secret ; and thy 
Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee 

' The sons of men. 



120 THE PREACHING OF 

in openness. And when thou art praying, be not 
wordy, like the profane ; for they think that in 
much speaking they are heard. Be ye not like 
them, for your Father knoweth what is needful for 
you before that ye ask him. Thus pray : Our 
Father who art ip. the heavens ! be sanctified thy 
Name. Come thy kingdom. Be done thy will, 
as in heaven, also in earth. Give to us the bread 
of our need to-day ; and forgive us our debts, as 
also we fbrgive our debtors ; and lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from the evil. For 
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory 
to the age of ages. For if ye forgive men their 
trespasses, your Father who is in heaven wiU for- 
give you also. But if ye wiU not forgive men, 
your Father also forgiveth not your trespasses 
unto you. 

XII. §}ttatits Bk^ in f^t ittavUs Wit^ af tfi^ 

When, too, ye fast, be not morosely sad as the 
assumers of faces, for they defile their counte- 
nances so as that they may appear imto men to 
fast : and. Amen I say unto you they receive their 
reward. But thou, when thou art fasting, wash 
thy face and anoint thine head, that it may not 
appear to men that thou art fasting, but to thy 
Father who is in secret ; and thy Father who seeth 
in secret, he shaU ireward thee. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 12! 

Lay not up for yourselves treasures in the earth, 
a place where moth and rust corrupt, and where 
thieves dig through and steal : hut lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where no moth and 
no rust corrupt, and where thieves do not dig 
through and steal. For where your treasure is> 
there also your hearts are. The lamp of the hody 
is the eye : if thine eye therefore he perfect, thy 
whole hody will he illuminated ; but if thine eye 
be evil, thy whole body wiQ be dark. If therefore 
the light that is in thee be darkness, what will thy 
darkness be ? No man can serve two lords ; for 
the one he will hate, and the other he will love, or 
the one he wiU honour, and the other he wiU neg- 
lect : ye cannot serve €rod and riches. 

XIII. ditrlr I3as in tt^t ^^t Wit^ of i^t ifit&t 

Wherefore I say unto you. Let not your souls 
be anxious what ye shall eat and what ye shall 
drink, and for your bodies what ye shall wear. Is 
not the life more excellent than food, and the body 
than raiment ? Behold the fowls of the heaven ; 
they sow not, neither do they reap, nor collect 
into granaries ; yet your Father who is in heaven 
nourisheth them : are ye not far more considerable 
than they ? But who among you by being anxious 
can add to his stature one cubit ? and concerning 
raiment, why are ye anxious? Look upon the 
liUes of the wilderness how they increase; they 

M 



122 THE PREACHING OF 

toil not, neither do they spin. Yet I say to you. 
Not even Shelemun in all his glory was covered 
like one from among these. But if the herb of 
the fields which to-day exists, and to-morrow fall- 
eth into the oven, God thus clotheth, how much 
more you, little of faith ? Be not anxious there- 
fore, nor say. What shall we eat, or. What shall 
we drink, or. How shall we be covered? For 
after all these things do the people of the world 
inquire : but your Father who is in heaven know- 
eth that also by you are required these all. But 
seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
ness, and all these shall be added unto you. Be 
not therefore anxious for to-morrow ; the morrow 
shall care for its own : the evil of to-day is enough 
for it. 



Jftat 

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with 
the judgment that ye judge, ye shall be judged ; 
and with the measure that ye mete, it shaU be 
measured to you. But why dost thou look at the 
rod that is in thy brother's eye, while the rafter 
that is in thine own eye thou dost not con- 
sider? Or how sayest thou to thy brother. Permit 
that I draw forth the rod from thine eye, and 
behold there is a rafter in thine own eye ? Hypo- 
crite ! draw forth first the rafter from thine own 



V- 



MATHAI TH& APOSTLE. 123 

eye, and then thou wilt see to draw forth the rod 
firom thy brother's eye. 

Give not the holy unto dogs, and throw not 
your precious stones before swine, lest they tram- 
ple them under their feet, and turn again and rend 
you. 

Ask, and it shall be given to you ; seek, and ye 
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you. For every one who asketh receiveth ; and 
he who seeketh findeth ; and to him who knocketh 
it is opened. Or what man £rom among you, who 
if his son shall ask bread, will reach forth a stone 
to him? Or if a fish he shall ask of him, a 
serpent will he reach forth to him 7 If, therefore, 
you who are evil, know to give good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall your Father 
who is in heaven give good things to those who 
ask him ? All therefore that ye wiU that men 
should do unto you, so also do ye unto them : for 
this is the law and the prophets. 

XV. jFrOras Motninfi in ^ fftiTt Wittk of t^t 

Enter in at the narrow gate : for wide is the 
gate, and spacious the way, that conducteth to 
destruction ; and they are many who go therein. 
How small is the gate, and narrow the way, that 
leadeth unto salvation ; and they are few who find it ! 

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in 

M 2 



124 THE PREACHING OF 

ihe clothing of sheep, hut within are ravening 
wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do 
they gather from thorns grapes, or from briers 
figs ? So every good tree !maketh good fruits ; but 
an evil tree maketh evil fruits. A good tree cannot 
make evil fruits, nor an evil tree make good fruits. 
Every tree that maketh not good fruits is cut 
down, and falleth into the fire. Wherefore by 
their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one 
that saith to me. My Lord, my Lord, entereth 
into the kingdom of heaven; but he who doeth 
the wiU of my Father who is in heaven. Multi- 
tudes wiU say to me in that day. My Lord, my 
Lord, in thy name have we not prophesied, and in 
thy name ejected devils, and in thy name per- 
fonhed many mighty works? And then wiU I 
confess to them, I never knew you : go far from. 
me, ye workers oi iniquity. 

Every one therefore who heareth these my 
words, and doeth them, shall be likened to a wise 
man, who built his house upon a rock. And the 
rain descended, and the torrents came, and the 
winds blew, and rushed against that house, but it 
fell not, for its foundations were placed upon the 
rock. And every one who heareth these my 
words, and doeth them not, shall be likened to a 
man who built his house upon sand. And the 
rain descended, and the torrents came, and the 
winds blew, and rushed against that house, and it 
fell, and the ruin of it was great. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 125 

And when Jeshu had finished these words, the 
multitudes wondered at his doctrine. For he 
taught them as one having power, and not as their 
scrihes and the phareshee. 

XVI. %ti^an tax ti^t ((Bhminfi of tt^t ffriTt [I9asl 
in tt^t iTeomlr Wit^ ot tt^t jftat 

When he had descended from the mountain, 
great multitudes cleaved to him. And, hehold, a 
certain leper came (and) worshipped him, and 
said. My Lord, if thou art willing, thou canst 
cleanse me. And Jeshu extended his hand, and 
touched him, and said, I am willing : he clean ; 
and in that very hour his leprosy was cleansed. 
And Jeshu said to him. See that thou teU no man, 
but go show thyself to the priests, and oflfer the 
oblation that Mushe required for their testimony. 

Then when Jeshu had entered into Kaphar- 
nachum, a certain centurion approached him, and 
besought of him, saying. My Lord, my child is 
l3ning in the house, paralysed and grievously tor- 
mented. Jeshu saith to him, I will come and heal 
him. The centurion answered and saith. My 
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come 
beneath my roof ;^ only speak in a word, and my 
child shall be healed. For I also am a man und^ 
authority, and under my hand there are soldiers. 

^ Shadow. 
M 3 



126 THE PREACHING OF 

I say to this one, Go, and he goeth ; and to the 
other. Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant. 
Do this, and he doeth. When Jeshu heard this, 
he was moved with admiration, and said to those 
with him. Truly I say to you, that in Isroel I have 
not found faith Hke this. But I tell you. That 
many shall come from the east, and jfrom the west, 
and shall recline with Ahr6h6m, and Ishok, and 
J3kub, in the kingdom of the heavens ; but the 
children of the kingdom shall go forth into outer 
darknesses ; there will be weeping and gnashing 
of teeth. And Jeshu said unto the centurion. Go ; 
as thou hast beheved, it shall be to thee. And 
his child was healed in that very hour. 

XVII. iLt^^n far ft^t ^bUtian at i^t firiSt S^sh' 

^ai^ at tt^t Jfa^t 

And Jeshu came to the house of Shemiin, and 
saw his mother-in-law lying, a fever having seized 
her. And he touched her with his hand, and the 
fever left her ; and she arose and ministered to 
them. 

And when it was evening, they brought before 
him many demoniacs, and he cast out their devils 
by a word ; and all those who were heavily 
afflicted, he healed. So was fulfilled what had 
been spoken by the prophet Eshaia, who said. 
That he should take our griefs, and bear our infir- 
mities. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 127 

Now when Jeshu saw the great multitudes 
which encompassed him, he commanded that they 
should go to the opposite shore. And a certain 
scrihe approached him, and said, Eahi, I will come 
after thee to the place whither thou goest. Jeshu 
saith to him. The foxes have their dens, and the 
fowls of heaven a bower, but the Son of man hath 
not where to lay his head. And another from his 
disciples said to him. My Lord, permit me first to 
go and bury my father. But Jeshu said to him. 
Come after me, and leave the dead ones burying 
their dead. 

XVIII. jTor tt^t ^mittfi at tf)t firiSt JBag tii tt^t 
t^ixrs minii ot i^t ^u^t 

And when Jeshu had ascended into the ship, 
his disciples ascended with him. And, behold, a 
great commotion was made on the sea, insomuch 
that the vessel was covered by the waves ; but 
Jeshu himself was asleep. And the disciples 
approached him, that they might awake him, 
saying to him. Our Lord, deHver us, we are perish- 
ing ! And Jeshu said to them. Why are ye fear- 
ful, ye Httle in faith ? Then he arose, and forbade 
the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. 
But the men were struck with wonder, saying. 
What (being) is this, to whom the winds and the 
sea are obedient ? 

And when Jeshu came to the other side, to the 



128 THE PREACHING OF 

region of the Godroyee, there met him two demo- 
niacs^ who came forth from the house of the 
buried, exceedingly malignant^ insomuch that no 
man could pass by that way. And they shouted^ 
saying, What to us^ and to thee^ Jeshu^ son of 
Gk)d I Hast thou come hither before the time, to 
torment us T Now there was at a distance from 
them, a herd of many swine feeding. Those 
demons, therefore, supplicated from him, saying, 
If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd 
of swine. Jeshu saith to them, Go : and imme- 
diately they went forth, and entered into the 
swine ; and the whole herd rushed directly over 
the rock, and, plunging into the sea, perished in 
the waters. And they who tended them, fled, and 
went into the city, and showed every thing that 
was done, and what concerned those demoniacs. 
And the whole city came forth to meet Jeshu 
himself ; and when they beheld him, they besought 
from him that he would remove from their coasts. 
And he ascended (into) the ship, and went over, 
and came to his city. And they brought to him a 
paralytic lying on a bed; and Jeshu saw their 
faith, and said to the paralytic. Be comforted, my 
son, thy sins are forgiven thee. But men from 
among the scribes said within themselves. This 
blasphemeth. But Jeshu knew their reasonings, 
and said to them. Why reason ye evil in your 
hearts ? For which is easier, to say, Foi^ven are 
thy sins, or to say, Arise, walk ? But that ye may 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 129 

know that authority hath the Son of man in the 
earth to remit sins, he saith to him — ^the panu 
lytic,— Arise, lift up thy bed, and go to thy 
house : and he arose (and) went to his house. 
When the assembly saw this, they feared, and 
glorified God who had given such power as this 
unto men. 

xi^. Jfm^ Bk^ in tt^t Witt'k at tt^t CatOrOratej^^ 

And when Jeshu had passed thence, he saw a 
man who was sitting at the place of the tribute- 
takers, whose name was Mathai ; and he said to 
him. Come after me ; and he arose and went after 
him. 

And while he recHned in the house, there came 
to him many tribute-gatherers and sinners, and 
reclined with Jeshu and with his disciples. And 
when the Pharishee saw (it), they say to his dis- 
ciples. Why doth your master eat with tribute- 
takers and sinners ? But Jeshu, when he heard 
(it), said to them. The healthful have no need for 
the physician, but they who are diseased.^ Gro, 
learn what that is : — " I. require mercy, and not 
sacrifice ; " for I am not come to call the righ- 
teous, but the sinners. 

Then drew nigh to him the disciples of Juchanon, 
and said, Why do we and the Pharishee fast much» 

' Grievously affected 



130 THE PREACHING OF 

and thy disciples fast not f Jeshu said to them. 
Neither can the sons of the marriage-chamber fast 
while the bridegroom is with them : but the days 
are coming when the bridegroom shall be taken np 
firom them, and then shall they fast. No man 
inserteth a piece of new cloth upon an old garment, 
lest he should take away its fulness £rom that gar- 
ment, and the rent be greater. Neither do they 
pour new wine into old bottles,^ that the bottles 
may not be broken, and the wine be spilled, and 
the bottles perish. But they pour new wine into 
new bottles, and both are preserved. 

XX. gnx tf^t C0mmniunrat(0n of tf^t IB^a^* 

While he spake these words with them, a cer- 
tain chief came, drew near, worshipped him, and 
said, My daughter is now dead ; but come, lay thy 
hand upon her, and she shall live ! And Jeshu 
arose, with his disciples, and went after him. And, 
behold, a woman whose blood had flowed twelve 
years, came behind him, and touched the edge of 
his vestment. For she was saying within herself. 
If I touch but his garment, I shall be healed. But 
Jeshu turned and seeth her, and said to her. Be 
comforted, my daughter, thy faith hath saved thee.® 
And the woman was healed j&om that very hour. 
And Jeshu came to the ruler's house, and saw the 

® Sacks. * Given thee life. 



MATHAI THE APOSTJLE. 131 

minstrels and the crowds wldch were maMng a 
tumult. And he said to them^ Retire ; for the dam- 
sel is not dead, but asleep. And they laughed at 
him. And when he had put forth the crowds, he 
entered, and took her by the hand ; and the dam- 
sel arose. And the rumour of this went forth 
through all that land. 

XXL ftOsssi off^tfifi^ mitOi in tt^t Jfa^. 

And when Jeshu had passed thence, two blind 
men clave to him, and besought him, and said. 
Have compassion on us. Son of David ! And when 
he had come into the house, these blind men were 
brought to him. Jeshu saith to them. Believe ye 
that I am able to do this ? They say to him. Yes, 
our Lord ! Then he touched their eyes, and said. 
As ye believe be it to you. And immediately their 
eyes were opened. And Jeshu forbad them and 
said. Beware lest any man know. But they went 
forth and sqpread the report of it through all that 
land. 

And when Jeshu went forth, they brought to 
him a dumb person in whom was a demon. And 
when the demon had gone out, the dumb spake ; 
and the multitudes were astonished, and said. 
Never was it thus seen in Isroel. But the Phari- 
shee said. By the chief of the devils he casteth out 
devils. 

And Jeshu itinerated in all their cities and vil- 



132 THE PREACHING OF 

lages, and taught in their assemhhes, and preached 
the gospel of the kingdom, and healed all diseases 
and all pains. 

XXII. Jfnx f^t C0mmnn0ratt0n of I5^t 50I5 

But when Jeshu saw the multitudes, he had 
compassion upon them, hecause they fainted and 
were dispersed as sheep that had no shepherd ; 
and said to his disciples. The harvest is great, and 
the labourers few. Ask, therefore, from the Lord 
of the harvest, that he would thrust forth labour- 
ers into his harvest. 

And he called his twelve disciples, and gave 
them power over unclean spirits to cast them out, 
and to cure every disease and infirmity. Now, of 
the twelve apostles the names are these : the first 
of them, Shemun who is called Eaphd, and Andreas 
his brother ; and Jakub-bar-Zabdai, and Juchanon 
his brother, and Phihpos, and Bar-Tholmai, and 
Thoma, and Mathai the tribute-gatherer, and Jakub- 
bar-Chalphai, and Mbi who was sumamed IMdai, 
and Shemun the zealous,^ and Jehudo Secariutho, 
he who betrayed him. 

These twelve Jeshu sent, and commanded them 
and said. In the way of the heathens go not, and 
into the city of the Shomroyee do not enter ; but 

^ Kenanaia. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 133 

go rather unto the sheep which have perished from 
the house of Isroel. And as ye go, proclaim and 
say that the kingdom of heaven hath drawn near. 
The diseased heal, the lepers cleanse, the dead 
raise, and the demons cast forth. Freely ye have 
received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor sil-r 
ver, nor hrass in your purses, nor a wallet for the 
road ; neither two tunics, nor sandals, nor staff : 
for worthy is the workman of his meat. And into 
whatsoever city or town ye enter, inquire who is 
worthy in it, and there be till ye depart. And 
when ye enter into the house, invoke peace for the 
house ; and if the house be worthy, your peace 
shall come upon it ; but if it be not worthy, your 
peace upon yourselves shall revert. But whosoever 
doth not receive you or hear your words, when ye 
depart from that house, or that town, set free the 
dust from your feet. And, Amen T say unto you, 
that for the land of Sadum and of Amuro it will 
be more tolerable in the day of the judgment than 
for that city. 

XXIII. jTot tt^t €ammttaavatian at ffyt "^aty 

Lo, I send you forth as sheep among wolves :• 
be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and guileless as 
doves. But beware of the sons of men ; for, deh- 
vering you to the house of judgments, in their syna- 
gogues they wiU scourge you, and before governors 

N 



134 THE PREACHING OF 

and kings bring you, on my account, for the testi- 
mony concerning them and the gentiles. But 
when they deliver you up, be not solicitous how or 
what ye shall speak ; for it is given you in that 
hour what ye shall speak. For it is not you speak- 
ing, but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you. 
But the brother shall dehver his brother unto 
death, and the father his son ; and the sons shall 
rise up against their fathers, and shall slay them. 
And ye shall be abhcxred by all men on account of 
my name: but he who shall persevere until the 
end, he shall be saved.^ "When they persecute you 
in this city, escape to the other ; for, Amen I say 
unto you, that ye shall not have completed all the 
cities of the house of Isroel, till the Son of man 
shall come. The disciple is not greater than his 
master, nor the servant than his lord. It sufficeth 
the disciple that he be as his master, and the ser- 
vant as his lord. If the master of the house they 
have called Beelzebub, how mudli more his house- 
sons ? Ye shall not fear, therefore, from them ; 
for there is nothing covered which shall not be 
revealed, nor secret which shall not be known. 
Whatsoever I say to you in darkness, declare ye in 
the Hght ; and whatsoever ye have heard in your 
ears, proclaim upon the piouse-]roofs. And fear 
not them who kill the body, but the soul cannot 
kill; but fear rather One who the soul and the 

^ ShaU live. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 135 

body can destroy in gihdno. Are not two sparrows 
sold for an asor ?^ yet one of them, without your 
Father, doth not fall upon the earth. But of you, 
also, the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear 
not, therefore ; than many sparrows more preeious 
are ye. Every man, therefore, who shall confess 
me before the sons of men, I myself will confess 
him also before my Father who is in heaven. But 
whosoever shall deny me before the sons of men, I 
also will deny him, I, before my Father who is in 
heaven. 

xxiv. ^t^^an iav i^t m^* 

Expect not that I have come to send forth 
peace on the earth ; I have not come to send forth 
peace, but the sword. For I have come to cause a 
man to separate irom^ his father, and a daughter 
from her mother, and a daughter-in-law from her 
mother-in-law ; and the adversaries of a man (to 
be) his own house-sons. "Whosoever loveth father 
or mother more than me is not worthy (of) me ; 
and whosoever loveth son or daughter more than 
me is not worthy (of) me. And every one who 
taketh not his cross and cometh after me, is not 
worthy of me. Whosoever will find his life shall 
lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my 
sake shall find it. Whosoever receiveth you, receiv- 

^ The iissarius, value three farthings. 
^ To divide against. 

N 2 



136 THE PREACHING OF 

eth me ; and whosoever receiveth me. Him whd 
«ent me he receiveth. "Whosoever entertaineth a 
prophet in the name of a prophet, the reward of a 
prophet receiveth. Whosoever entertaineth a just 
man in the name of a just man, the reward of the 
just man he receiveth. And whosoever only giveth 
one of these Httle ones a cup of cold (waters) to 
drink in the name of a disciple. Amen, I say unto 
you, he shall not lose his reward. 

XXV. &bMian fax ffyt 28^calfinfl n( aiutl^an0tt. 

And it was that when Jeshu had finished 
instructing his twelve disciples, he removed from 
thence to teach and preach in their cities. But 
Juchanon, when he heard in the house of the 
bound the works of the Meshicha, sent by^ his 
disciples, and said to him, Art thou He that com- 
eth, or another are we to expect ? Jeshu answered 
and said to them. Go, recount to Juchanon these 
things which ye hear and see ; (that) the blind see, 
the lame are walking, the lepers are made clean, 
the deaf hear, the dead arise, and the poor are 
evangelized; and blessed is he who shall not be 
offended v«dth me. 

But when they '^ere gone, Jeshu began to speak 
to the assembly concerning Juchanon : What went 
ye forth into the waste to see ? a reed that by the 

5 By the hand of two. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 137 

^ wind was shaken ? And if not, what went ye forth 
to see ? a man clothed in soft vestments ? Behold, 
they who are softly clothed are in the house of 
kings. And if not, what went ye forth to see ? a 
prophet ? I tell yon. Yes ; and more than a pro- 
phet. For this is he concerning whom it is writ- 
ten. Behold, I send my angel before thy face, to 
prepare the way before thee. Amen I say to you, 
there hath not arisen among them bom of women 
[one] who [is] greater than Juchanon the Baptizer : 
yet, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater 
than he. But from the days of Juchanon the Bap- 
tizer until now, the kingdom of the heavens by vio- 
lence is taken, and the violent ones seize it. For 
all the prophets and the law prophesied^ untU 
Juchanon ; and if ye are willing, receive it ; — He 
is Eho who was to come. Whoever hath ears to 
hear, he shall hear. 

XXVI. S>taiv^ I9as in tt^t tt^ixti Wittii at tt^t 

But to what shall I compare this generation ? 
It is like children who sit in the pubHc place, and 
cry to their companions, and say. We have sung 
to you, and ye have not danced ; we have wailed 
unto you, and ye have not mourned. For Jucha- 
non came neither eating nor drinking, and they 

* Or, were prophetic 
N 3 



138 TUB PREACHING Of 

say, He hatha devil. The Son of man came eating 
and drinking, and they say, See a man a devourer, 
a wine-drinker, a friend of tribute-takers and of 
sinners. But justified is wisdom by her servants. 
Then began Jeshu to reproach those cities in 
which were done many of his miracles, and which 
did not repent, saying. Woe to thee, Korazin ! woe 
to thee, Beth-tsaidd ! for if in Tsur and in Tsaidon 
those miracles had been done which have been per- 
formed in you, they would a while ago in sackcloth 
and ashes have repented. But I say to you, that 
for Tsur and Tsaidon it shall be more tolerable^ in 
the day of judgment than for you. And thou, 
Kapher-nachum, who unto heaven art exalted, imto 
Shiul shalt be brought down ; for if in Sadum had 
been done those miracles which have been done in 
thee, it would have stood until this day. But I 
teU you that for the land of Sadum it shall be 
more tolerable^ in the day of judgment than for 
thee. 



XXVII. stinting of tt^t ^utOras atttv ti^t 

In that time Jeshu answered and said, I praise 
thee, my Father, the Lord of the heavens and of 
the earth, that thou hast concealed these (things) 
from the wise and prudent [ones], but hast revealed 

" Or, tranquil. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 139 

them unto little children. Yes, my Father, for 
thus was it pleasing before thee ! All things are 
dehvered to me from my Father ; and no man 
knoweth the Son but the Father ; also the Father 
no man knoweth, except the Son, and he (to) whom 
the Son pleaseth to reveal (him). Come unto me, 
all ye (who) are wearied and bearing burdens, and 
I will give you rest. Bear my yoke upon you, and 
learn of me ; for I am peaceful and lowly in my 
heart, and ye shall find repose for your souls. For 
my yoke is kindly, and my burden is light. 

At that time Jeshu was walking on the sabbath 
among the grain ;® and his disciples hungered, and 
began to pluck the ears and to eat. But when the 
Pharishee saw them, they say to him. Look, thy 
disciples do something which is not lawful to be 
done on the sabbath. But he said to them, H^ave 
ye not tead what David did when he hungered, and 
they who were with him? how he went to the 
house of God, and the bread of the table of the 
Lord did he eat, — that which was not lawful for 
him to eat, nor for them who were with him, but 
for the priests only ? Or have ye not read in the 
law that the priests in the temple profane the sab- 
bath in it, and are without blame ? But I say to 
you, that (one) greater than the temple is here. 
Moreover, if ye knew what that (meaneth), I desire 
mercy and not a sacrifice, ye would not have con- 

® Or, in the place of seeds. 



140 THE PREACHING OF 

demned them who are not faulty. For the Lord 
of the sabhath is the Son of man. 

XXVIII. S>aAatf) of tt^t tt^ixts WitOi in tt^t Jfiat 

And Jeshu passed thence^ and came into their 
synagogue. And a certain man was there whose 
hand was withered. And they questioned him, say- 
ing, Is it lawful on the sabbath to heal ? that they 
might accuse him. But he said to them. What 
man is there among you that hath one sheep, (who), 
if it faU into a pit on the sabbath-day, doth not 
take and lift it up ? How much more precious is 
a child of man than a sheep ! Wherefore it is law- 
ful on the sabbath-day to do that which is good. 
Then saith he to the man. Stretch forth thine 
hand ! and he stretched forth his hand, and it was 
restored like the other its fellow. And the Phari- 
shee went forth and took counsel against him, how 
they might destroy him. But Jeshu knew, and 
passed from thence ; and great crowds went after 
him, and he healed them aU. And he forbad that 
they should make him known. That what was 
spoken by the prophet Eshaia might be fulfilled, 
who said. Behold my servant, in whom is my plea- 
sure ; my beloved, in whom my soul dehghteth. 
My Spirit will I put upon him, and judgment to 
the peoples shall he preach. He shall not contend 
nor cry, and no man shall hear his voice in the 
street. A bruised reed he wiU not break, and a 



M'ATHAI THE APOSTLE. 141 

'flickering lamp he wiU not extinguish, until he 
bring forth judgment imto victory. And in his 
name shall the gentiles hope. 

XXIX. etiaimj 0f tt^t fbcit ©ag in tfyt WitA 

Then they brought to him a certain demoniac 
who was dumb and blind ; and he healed him, so 
that the dumb and bhnd could speak and see. 
And all the multitude were amazed, and said. Is 
not this the Son of David? But the Pharishee, 
when they heard, said. This (man) doth not cast 
forth demons unless by Beelzebub, the prince of 
the devils. But Jeshu knew their reasonings, and 
said to them. Every kingdom that is divided against 
itself is destroyed ; and every city which is divided 
against itself shall not stand. And if Satan ^ cast 
out Satan, he is divided against himself; how 
then standeth his kingdom ? And if I by Beelze- 
bub cast forth demons, your sons, by whom do 
they cast them forth ? On this account they shall 
be your judges. But if I by the Spirit of God 
east forth demons, the kingdom of God hath come 
nigh upon you. Or, how can one enter the strong 
one's house, and spoil his goods, unless he first 
bind the strong one? and then can he spoil his 
house. He who is not with me is against me ; 

^ Sotono. 



142 THE PREACHING OF 

and he who gathereth not with me^ in scattering 
scattereth. Wherefore, this I say to you : that all 
sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven nnto the 
sons of men ; but the blasphemy which is against 
the Spirit shall not be forgiven to the sons of men. 
And every one who shall speak a word against the 
Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but every 
one who against the Spirit of hoUness shall speak, 
it shall not be forgiven to him, neither in this 
world nor in the world to come. Or make the tree 
good, and the fmits (wOl be) good ; or make the 
tree evil, and the fruits (wOl be) evil : for by the 
fruits the tree is known. Brood of vipers ! how 
can ye speak good who are evil? For from the 
abundancies of the heart the mouth speaketh. A 
good man from the good treasuries bringeth forth 
good things, and an evil man out of the evil trea- 
suries bringeth forth evil (things). But I teU you, 
that for every useless word which the sons of men 
shall speak, they must give the answer for it in the 
day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt 
be justi&ed, and by thy words thou shalt be con- 
demned. 



XXX. ((BhmixiQ of ti^t dLommtmoxatian of tt^t 
iSSiott^tx of tfyt Horlr. 

Then answered certain from the scribes and 
Pharishee, and said to him. Teacher, we would 
wish to see a sign from thee. But he answered 



MATfiAI THE APOSTLE. 143 

them and said, A generation depraved and adulte- 
rous requireth a sign; but a sign shall not be 
given to it, but the sign of Jaunon the prophet ; 
for as Jaunon was in the belly of the fish three 
days and three nights, so the Son of man shall be 
in the heart of the earth three days and three 
nights. The men of Ninevoe shall rise up in the 
judgment with this generation, and shall condemn 
it ; for they repented at the preaching of Jaunon ; 
and, behold, a greater than Jaunon (is) here. The 
queen of the south shall arise in the judgment 
with this generation, and shall condemn it ; for 
she came from the confines of the earth that she 
might hear the wisdom of Shelemun ; bilt one 
more excellent than Shelemun is here. When the 
unclean spirit shall have gone forth from a child of 
man, he wandereth through places that have no 
waters in them, and seeketh repose, but findeth 
(it) not. Then he saith, I will return unto the 
house from whence I came forth ; and coming, he 
findeth it untenanted, cleansed, and decorated. 
Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other 
spirits, than himself more wicked, and they enter 
and dweU in him. And the end of that man is 
worse than his beginning. So shall it be with this 
wicked race! While he spake to the assembly, 
his mother and his brethren came, standing with- 
out, and seeking to speak with him. And a man 
said to him, Thy mother and thy brethren are 
standing without, and are requesting to speak with 



144 THE PREACHING OF 

theie. But he answered and said to him who spake 
to him. Who is my mother, and who are my bre^ 
thren ? And he stretched forth his hand towards 
his disciples, and said. Behold my mother, and 
behold my brethren ! For every one who doeth 
the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my 
brother, and my sister, and my mother. 



XXXI. jfanxttf ©as of i^t ^eMtOf Wit^ at tt^t 

In that day Jeshu went forth from the house 
and sat by the sea-side;^ and great multitudes 
gathered near him, so that he went up and sat in 
a vessel ; and all the multitude were standing on 
the shore of the sea. And he discoursed largely 
to them in parables, and said : 

Behold, there went forth a sower to sow ; and 
as he sowed, some fell by the road-side, and the 
fowl came and devoured it. Another (portion) fell 
upon the rock, where there was not much soil ; 
and immediately^ it sprung up, because there was 
no depth of earth. But when the sun was risen, 
it burned, and, because it had no root, it withered 
away. And another fell among the thorns, and the 
thorns sprang up and choked it. And another fell 
into good earth, and gave fruits, this a hundred, 

* By the hand of the sea. 

' Bar-shoieh, "the son of its hour." 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 145 

another sixty, and another thirty. He who hath 
ears to hear, let him hear.^ 

And his disciples approached, saying to him. 
Why dost thou speak to them in parahles? He 
replied and said to them. Because unto you it is 
given to know the mystery of the kingdom of hea- 
ven, hut unto them it is not given. For unto him 
who hath, it shall he given, and it shall he increased 
to him : hut [as] to him who hath not, that also which 
he hath shall he taken from him. On this accoimt 
I speak to them in parahles. Hence they see, and 
(yet) see not ; and they hear, and (yet) hear not, 
neither understand ; and accomplished in them is 
the prophecy of Eshaia, who said, that hearing 
they should hear, hut not understand, and seeing 
they should see, but not know. For the heart of 
this people is become gross, and with their ears 
they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have 
shut, that they may not see with their eyes, nor 
hear with their ears, nor understand with their 
hearts, and be converted, and I heal them. But 
blessed are your eyes which see, and your ears 
which hear : for. Amen I say unto you, that many 
prophets and just ones have desired to behold what 
ye see, and have not beheld, and to hear what ye 
hear, and have not heard. You, then, attend to 
the comparison of the seed : (When) any one who 
heareth the doctrine of the kingdom doth not 

3 He shall hear. 

o 



146 THE PREACHING OF 

understand it, there cometli the evil (one), and 
snatcheth away the doctrine that was sown in his 
heart : this is . what by the road-side was sown. 
Bnt that which was sown upon the rock is he who 
heareth the word, and at once with joy apprehend- 
eth it. Yet hath he no root in him, but is (only) 
for a time; and when affliction or persecution 
occurs on account of the doctrine, he is quickly 
offended. That sown [in] the place of thorns, is he 
who heareth the word, but the anxious thought of 
this world and the illusions of riches stifle the 
word in him, and he is without fruits. But that 
which upon good ground was sown is he who hear- 
eth my doctrine, and understandeth (it), and 
giveth fruits, and produceth, whether a hundred, 
or sixty, or thirty fold. 

XXXII. ^|iiatt0n tax ft^t Si^hni^ at f^t l^vitm. 

Another comparisoif he allegorized unto them, 
and said : The kingdom of heaven is hke unto a 
man who sowed good seed in his field. And while 
men slept, came his adversary, and sowed zizania 
among the wheat, and went. And when the plant 
sprang up and produced fruit, then appeared the 
zizania. And the labourers of the house-lord drew 
near and said to him. Our lord, didst thou not sow 
good seed in thy field ? from whence then is the 
zizania in it ? But he said to them, A foeman hath 
done this. The labourers say to him. Art thou 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 147 

willing that we go and gather them ? But he said 
to them, (No,) lest when ye gather the zizania, ye 
root out with them the wheat also. Leave (them), 
that hoth may grow together till the harvest ; and 
in the season of harvest I will say to the reapers. 
Gather first the zizania, and hind them (together 
in) bundles, that they may burn ; but the wheat 
collect into my bams. 

Another comparison allegorized he to them, and 
said : The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of 
mustard, which a man took and sowed in his field. 
This is less than all other seeds ; but when it has 
grown it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a 
tree, so that the fowl of the heavens come (and) 
bu'dd in its branches. Another parable he spake 
to them : The kingdom of heaven resembles that 
leaven which a woman took and hid in three satas* 
of meal, imtil the whole was leavened. 

All these spake Jeshu in parables to the multi- 
tude ; and without a parable he did not speak with 
them. That there should be fulfilled what was 
spoken by the prophet, who said, I will open my 
mouth in comparisons, and pour forth things hid- 
den from before the foundation of the world. 

Then Jeshu dismissed the multitudes, and came 
into the house ; and his disciples drew near him, 
and said to him. Expound to us the comparison of 
the zizania of the field. He answered and said to 



* The sea, or sata, was the third of an epha, 

o 2 



148 THK PREACHING OF 

them. He who sowed the good seed is the Son of 
man. The field is the world. Now, the good seed 
are the sons of the kingdom, hut the zizania are 
the sons of the evil one. The adversary who sowed 
them is Sotono ; the harvest is the consummation 
of the world; the reapers are the angels. As, 
therefore, the zizania are gathered and humed in 
the fire, so shall it he in the completion of this 
world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, 
and they shall coUect from his kingdom all those 
who cause offence, and all (who) work iniquity, 
and shall throw them into a furnace of fire ; there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the 
just shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of 
their Father. He who hath ears to hear, let him 
hear. 

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure 
which was hidden in a field, (and) which a man 
found and concealed, and from joy went and sold 
aU that he had, and bought that field. 

Again, the kingdom of heaven is Kke unto a 
man a merchant, who sought goodly pearls; hut 
who, when he had found one pearl of exceeding 
price, went, sold all that he had, and bought it. 
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, 
which was thrown into the sea, and from every 
kind collected. And when it was full, they drew 
to the shore, and sat down, and selected ; and the 
good they threw into vessels, and the bad they cast 
without. Thus shall it be at the consummation of 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 149 

the world. The angels shall go forth, and separate 
the evil from among the just, and cast them into 
the furnace of fire ; there shall he weeping and 
gnashing of teeth ! 

Jeshu said to them, Have ye understood all 
these ? They say to him. Yes, our Lord. He saith 
to them. On this account every scribe who is 
learned in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man 
a house-lord, who bringeth forth from his treasu- 
ries the new and the old. 

xxxni. eiimins ai Qe Mtf^tt^ins of Sluc^amyti. 

And when Jeshu had finished these parables, he 
passed from thence, and came to his city, and 
taught them in their synagogues, so that they were 
astounded and said. Whence hath he (Whence to 
him) this wisdom and these powers ? Is not this 
the son of the carpenter? is not his mother called 
Mariam, and his brothers, Jakub, and Josi, and 
Shemun, and Jehuda ? and his sisters, all, are they 
not with us ? Whence to this one all these ? And 
they were offended with him. But Jeshu said to 
them. No prophet is contemned except in his own 
city, and in his own house. And he did not many 
miracles there on account of their unbehef. 

In that time Herodes the tetrarch heard the 
rumour concerning Jeshu ; and he said to his ser- 
vants. This is Juchanon the Baptizer: he hath 
risen from the house of the dead, therefore power- 

o 3 



150 THE PREACHING OP 

ful works are wrought by him. For he, Herodetf, 
had seized Juchanon, and bound him, and cast 
him (into) the house of the chained, because of 
Herodia, the wife of Philip his brother. For Jucha- 
non had said to him. It is not lawful that she 
should be to thee a wife. And he would have 
killed him, but he feared the people, because as 
a prophet they held him. But at the birth-day of 
Herodes, the daughter of Herodia danced before 
those who reclined, and she pleased Herodes; 
wherefore with an oath he sware to her to give her 
whatever she should demand. Then she, because 
instructed by her mother, said. Give me here in a 
dish the head of Juchanon the Baptizer. And the 
king sickened, yet, on account of the oath and the 
guests, he commanded that it should be given to 
her. And he sent [and] cut off the head of Jucha- 
non in the house of the chained. And his head 
was brought in a dish, and given to the girl, and 
she carried it herself to her mother. And his dis- 
ciples came near, took up his corpse, buried (it), 
and came and showed Jeshu. Then Jeshu, when 
he heard, removed from thence by ship to a desert 
place by himself; and when the multitude heard 
it, they came after him on dry land from the cities. 
And Jeshu came forth, and saw great multitudes, 
and felt compassion for them, and healed their 
diseases. 



MATHAl THE APOSTLS. 151 



XXXIV. Jfav Qe iraag eWlati0m 

But when it was eventide, his disciples ap- 
proached him, and said to him. The place is 
desert, and the time passed over ; send away these 
multitudes of men, that they may go to the vil- 
lages, and huy for themselves food. But he said 
to them. It is not needful that they should go ; 
give ye them to eat. They said to him. We have 
nothing here hut five cakes and two fishes. Jeshu 
sqjid to them. Bring them hither to me* And 
he directed the multitudes to recline upon the 
ground ; and he took the five loaves and two 
fishes, and looked up to heaven, and hlessed, and 
hrake, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples 
themselves placed (it) hefore the multitudes. And 
all did eat, and were satisfied ; and they took up 
of the ahundance of the fragments, twelve hasketa 
when full. Now those men who had eaten were 
five thousand, hesides women and children. And 
immediately he constrained his disciples to ascend 
into the hark, and proceed before him to the other 
shore, while he was dismissing the crowds. And 
when he had sent the multitudes away, he went 
up to a mountain by himself, to pray. 



152 THE PREACHING OF 



XXXV. ^tainfi at tt^t ittatOs i^xwCtiup atttt ffye 

fSitivtxxtttiaru 

And when it was dark^ he alone was there. 
But the vessel was distant from the land many 
stadias^ being greatly beaten with the waves, for 
the wind was against them. But in the fourth 
watch of the night, Jeshu came to them, walking 
upon the waters. And the disciples beheld him 
walking on the waters, and they were troubled, 
saying. That it was a spectre;^ and from fear 
they cried out. But Jeshu at once spoke to them, 
and said. Take courage, I am, fear not ! And 
Eipho answered, and said to him. My Lord, if it 
be thou, command me to come to thee upon the 
waters. Jeshu said to him. Come. And Kipho 
descended from the ship, and walked on the waters 
to go to Jeshu. But when he saw the furious 
wind, he feared, and began to sink ; and he lifted 
up his voice, and said. My Lord, deliver me! 
And immediately our Lord reached forth his hand, 
and seized him, and said to him. Little of faith, 
why art thou divided (in mind) ? And when they 
had ascended into the ship, the wind was tran- 
quil. And they who were in the ship, came and 
adored him, and said. Truly the Son thou art of 
God ! And they rowed, and came to the land of 

'^ Or, a false vision. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 153 

Gen^sar ; and the men of that country recognised 
him, and sent to all the villages that were about 
them, and they brought to him all those who were 
grievously afflicted, and besought from him that 
they might touch only the border of his mantle ; 
and those who touched were healed. 

XXXVI. ^utOraif after ^ttitttoit 

Then came to Jeshu, Pharishee and So- 
phree,® who were from Urishlem, saying. Why 
do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the 
elders, and wash not their hands when they eat 
bread? Jeshu answered, and said to them. Why 
also do ye transgress the commandment of God 
for the sake of your tradition? For God hath 
said. Honour thy father and thy mother; and 
whoso curseth his father or his mother, to die he 
shall die : but ye say. Every one who shall say to 
a father, or to a mother, (It is) my oblation what- 
ever thou wouldst be profited by me, and shaU not 
honour his father or his mother, (shall be guilt- 
less). Thus ye have abolished the word of God 
for the sake of your tradition. Ye hypocrites! 
rightly prophesied concerning you Eshaia the pro- 
phet, and said. This people with the Hps honour 
me, but their heart (is) very far from me. But in 
vain they reverence me, while they teach the doc- 

^ Scribes. 



154 THE PREACHING OF 

tnnes of the commandments of men.^ And he 
called to the multitudes, and said to them, Hear, 
and understand : It is not that which entering the 
mouth, contaminates a man, hut that which shall 
come from the mouth, that contaminates a man. 
Then drew near his disciples, saying to him, 
Knowest thou that the Pharishee who heard this 
word were offended ? But he answered, and said 
to them. Every plantation which my Father who 
is in heaven hath not planted shall he rooted up. 
Leave them : they are hHnd leaders of the hlind ; 
hut if a hhnd man shall lead a hlind man, hoth 
shall fall into the ditch. And Shemun Eipho 
answered and said. My Lord, expound to us this 
parahle. But he said to them. Do ye also not yet 
understand ? Know ye not that whatsoever enter- 
eth the mouth, goeth into the beUy, and from 
thence in purification it is cast without? But 
whatsoever from the mouth shall come forth, from 
the heart cometh forth, and this [it is that] con- 
taminates a child of man. For from the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, adultery, murder, forni- 
cation, robbery, false witness, blasphemy. These 
are they which defile a man ; but if any one eat 
when his hands are not washed, he is not defiled. 

' Sons of men. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 155 



XXXVII. ef^miafi ai tt^t nxit IBas in tt^t fourth 

And Jeshu went forth from thence, and came 
to the borders of Tsur and Tsaidon. And, behold, 
a Canaanite woman from those coasts came forth 
crying, and saying. Have mercy upon me, my Lord, 
son of David, my daughter is grievously possessed 
with the demon. But he did not return her an 
answer. And the disciples approached and re- 
quested frt)m him, saying, Dismiss her, for she 
crieth after us. But he answered and said to 
them, I am not sent but to the sheep which have 
wandered from the house of Israel. Then she 
came, worshipped him, and said. My Lord, help 
me. Jeshu said to her. It is not proper to take 
the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. 
But she said. Even so, my Lord ; yet the dogs eat 
from the crumbs that fall frt)m the tables of their 
masters, and live. Then said Jeshu to her, 
woman, great is thy faith, be it to thee as thou 
wilt. And healed was her daughter from that 
hour. And Jeshu passed from thence, and came 
near the sea of Galilo, and he ascended the moun- 
tain and sat there. And there drew near to him 
great gatherings (of people), and with them there 
were the lame, and the blind, and the dumb, 
and the mutilated, and many others; and they 
cast them at the feet of Jeshu, and he healed 
them. So that those multitudes were astounded 



156 THE PREACHING OF 

a8 they beheld the dumb speaking, and the 
mutihited made whole, and the lame walking, and 
the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of 
Isroel. 

xxxvin. Jfov m tSKUvi ^filati0n- 

But Jeshu himself called his disciples, and said 
to them, I have pity for this multitude, who, 
behold, for three days have continued with me, 
but there is nothing for them to eat ; and to send 
them away fasting, I am unwilhng, lest they 
should faint in the way. The disciples say to 
him, "Whence can we have bread in the wilderness, 
that we may satisfy this whole multitude ? Jeshu 
saith to them. How many loaves have ye ? They 
say to him. Seven, and a few small fishes. And 
he directed that the multitudes should recline upon 
the ground. And he took those seven loaves and 
the fishes, and offered praise, and brake, and gave 
to his disciples, and the disciples gave to the mul- 
titudes ; and they all did eat, and were satisfied : 
and they took up of the abundance of fragments 
seven baskets fuU. And they who had eaten, were 
four thousand men, besides women and children. 
And when he had dismissed the multitudes, he 
ascended into a ship, and came to the coasts of 
Magodu. 

And there came Pharishee and Zadukoyee, 
tempting him, and demanding that he would show 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 157 

them a sign &om heaven. But he answered and 
said to them, When it is eyening, ye say. It will be 
serene weather, for the heaven hath reddened. 
And in the early morning ye say. To-day will be 
tempestuous, for the heaven hath reddened gloom- 
ily. Hypocrites ! the aspect of the heaven ye are 
skilful to discriminate, (but) the signs of this time 
ye know not how to distinguish. A depraved and 
adulterous race requireth a sign, but a sign shaU 
not be given to it, save the sign of Jaunon the 
prophet ; and he left them, and went away. And 
when his disciples had come to the opposite 
[shore], they had forgotten to take bread with 
them. But he said to them. Take heed and beware 
of the leaven of the Pharishee and Zadukoyee* 
But they thought within themselves, saying, (It is) 
because bread we have not taken. But Jeshu 
knew, and said to them, "Why reason ye within 
yourselves, little in faith, because bread ye have 
not brought ? have ye not yet understood ? do ye 
not remember those five loaves for the five thou- 
sand, and how many panniers ye took up ? Or 
those seven loaves and the four thousand, and how 
many baskets ye took up ? "Why do ye not under- 
stand that it was not concerning bread I spoke to 
you, but that ye should beware of the leaven of 
the Pharishee and of the Zadukoyee ? Then they 
understood that he did not say that they should 
beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine 
of the Pharishee and of the Zadukoyee. 



158 THE PREACHING OF 



XXXIX. C0mmtm0ratian nf Qe 1^0!]; ^oifiti. 

Now when Jeshu had come to the place of 
Eesaria of Philipos, he questioned his disciples, 
saying. What do men say concerning me who am 
the Son of man ? They said to him, Some say 
that thou art Juchanon the Baptizer, but others 
Elio, and others Eramio, or one ^m the prophets. 
He saith to them. But ye, whom say ye that I am ? 
Shemun Kipho answered and said, Thou art the 
Meshicha, Son of the living God. Jeshu responded 
and said to him. Blessed art thou Shemun-bar- 
Jona ; because flesh and blood have not revealed 
(this) to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. 
Also I say unto thee, that thou art Kipho, and 
upon this rock will I build my church, and the 
gates of Sheul shall not prevail against her. To 
thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of hea- 
ven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, 
shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. 
Then he commanded his disciples that no man 
they should teU that he was the Meshicha. 

XL. ^emntr ^rnitra^? attnr ^trttttait 

And from that time began Jeshu to show to his 
disciples that it was to be that he should go to 
Urishlem, and suffer much from the elders and the 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 159 

chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and the 
third day arise again. Then Eipho took him 
(apart ?) and began to expostulate with him, and 
said, Far be it firom thee, my Lord, that this 
should be to thee. But he turned and said to 
Kipho, Get thee behind me, Sotono, thou art a 
stumbling-block to me, because thou thinkest not 
from God, but from the sons of men. Then said 
Jeshu to his disciples. Whosoever desires to come 
after me, let him deny himself, and let him take 
up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will- 
eth to save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever 
will lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For 
what shall a man be profited, if the whole world 
he shall acquire and his soul shall perish ? or what 
equivalent shall a man give for his soul ? For it 
is to be, that the Son of man shall come in the 
glory of his Father with his holy angels, and then 
shall he render unto every man according to his 
works. 

Amen, I say unto you. There are men standing 
here who shaU not taste death, until they shall 
have seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom. 
And after six days, Jeshu took Kipho, and Jakub, 
and Juchanon his brother, and led them to a high 
mountain by themselves. And Jeshu was changed 
before them ; and his countenance shone like the 

p 2 



160 THE PREACHING OF 

sun, and his vestments were resplendent as the 
light. And there were seen with them Mushe and 
Elio talking with him. Then answered Eipho, 
and said to Jeshu, My Lord, it is good for us to 
be here; and if thou art willing, we will make 
here three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for 
Mushe, and one for EHo. But while he spake, 
behold, a bright doud overspread them, and the 
voice was from the cloud, saying, This is my Son, 
the Beloved, in whom I have delighted : to him 
attend. And when the disciples heard, they feU 
upon their faces and feared greatly. And Jeshu 
approached them and touched them, and said. 
Arise, fear not. And they lifted up their eyes and 
saw no man, except Jeshu by himself. And while 
they were descending from the mountain, Jeshu 
charged them, and said to them. Before no man 
declare this vision,^ until the Son of man be risea 
from the dead.^ And the disciples asked and said 
to him. Why therefore say the scribes that Elio 
must come first? Jeshu answered and said to 
them, Elio cometh first that he may fulfil every 
thing ; but I say to you, that, behold, Elio hath 
come, but they knew him not, and have done to 
him as they would. So also is the Son of man to 
sufier from them. Then understood the* disciples 
that concerning Juchanon the Baptizer he spake to 
them. 

^ To the eye of man tell not this vision. 
^ FrcHn (among) the dead : pluraL 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 161 



XLII. £ec0tar m&Vi if^ ^^ ^i^'^ 'mttk at tfyt 

dTarft 

And when they came to the multitude, a man 
approached him and kneeled upon his knees, and 
said to him. My Lord, have mercy on me, my son 
is lunatic and grievously afflicted ; for often he 
falleth into the fire and often into the water. 
And I brought him to thy disciples, but they could 
not heal him. Jeshu answered and said, unbe- 
lieving and perverse generation, how long shaU I 
be with you, how long shall I bear with you I 
bring him hither to me. And Jeshu rebuked him, 
and the demon went forth from him, and the 
youth was healed from that hour. Then came the 
disciples to Jeshu by himself, and said to him. 
Why were we not able to heal him ? Jeshu saith 
to them. Because of your unbelief; for assuredly 
1 tell you, if there were in you faith as a grain of 
mustard, ye should say to this mountain, Pas» 
hence, and it would pass away; and nothing 
should overcome you. But this kind goeth not 
forth but by fasting and by prayer. 



XLIII. ^ixts iSaj) in i^t i^ixts Wittk of i^t 

dTarft 

When they had returned into Galilo, Jeshu 
said to them, It is coming that the Son of man 

p 3 



162 THE PREACHING OF 

ehall be delivered into the hands of men, and they 
shall kill him ; and in the third day he shall arise. 
And it grieved them exceedingly. And when they 
came to Kapher-nachum, they who took the two 
ziLzis, the head'silver, approached Kipho and said 
to him. Your master, doth he not give his two 
zuzeen?^ He saith to them. Yes. And when 
Kipho entered the house, Jeshu anticipated him, 
and said to him. How doth it appear to thee, 
Shemun? the kings of the earth, firom whom do 
they take custom and head-silver, firom their chil- 
dren, or from aliens ? Shemun saith to him. From 
aliens : Jeshu saith to him. Then the children are 
iree,^ But that we may not offend them, go to 
the sea, and cast the hook, and the fish that first 
Cometh up, open his mouth, and thou shalt find a 
stater, that take and present for me and thee. 

XLiv. ^ixts S^vtVLtSK^ after ^ttftttait 

In that hour the disciples came near to Jeshu, 
saying. Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? 
And Jeshu called a cluld, and made him stand in 
the midst of them, and said. Amen I say to you, 
unless ye be converted and become as children, ye 
shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoso- 
ever therefore humbleth himself as this child, he 
shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And 

^ The zuz, or zuza, was a silver coin, value one drachm. 
^ Sons of the free. 



MATHAI TH£ APOSTLE. 163 

whosoever shall receive [such] as [are] like this 
child, in my name, he receiveth me. And every 
one that shall offend one of these little ones who 
beheve in me, to him it had been better that the 
millstone of an ass^ were hung to his neck, and 
himself plunged into the depths of the sea. Woe 
to the world from causes of offence : for it is 
unavoidable that causes of offence wiU come, but 
woe to the man by whom^ the causes of offence 
shall come. If, then, thine hand or thy foot shall 
be a cause of offence to thee, cut it off, and cast it 
from thee ; for it is good for thee that thou enter 
into life^ lame or mutilated ; and not that having 
two hands or two feet, thou fall into the fire of 
eternity. And if thine eye be a cause of offence 
to thee, dig it out, and cast it from thee ; good (it 
is) for thee that with one eye thou enter into life,® 
and not that having two eyes thou fall into the 
gihlbia of fire. See that ye contemn not one of 
these little ones : for I say unto you that their 
angels in all time are beholding the face of my 
Father who is in heaven. For the Sou of man is 
come to save that which had perished. How doth 
it appear to you ? if a man have an hundred sheep, 
and one of them shall wander from them, doth he 
not leave the ninety and nine on the mountain, 
and, going, seek that which had wandered ? And 
if he shall find it, assuredly I tell you that he 

^ That is, the stone of a miU worked by an ass or mule. 
* By whose hand. * Lives, 



164 THE PREACHING OF 

rejoicetli in it more than (in) the ninety and nine 
which wandered not. So, it is not good® before 
your Father who is in heaven, that one of these 
little ones should perish. 

XLV. Jfav t^t ftait B«si in i^t tawctt^ Wittk 

alter ^tntttait 

Now if thy brother offend against thee, go, and 
argue (the matter) between thyself and him alone ; 
and if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 
But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two, 
that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses 
may be estabhshed every word. And if, also, he 
will not hear them, tell the church ; but if he will 
neither hear the church, let him be to thee as a 
pubHcan and as a heathen. And, Amen I say 
unto you, that whatsoever ye shaU bind on earth, 
shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I 
say to you, that if two of you shall consent on 
earth concerning every thing that they shall askj 
it shall be done for them by my Father who is in 
heaven. For where two or three are assembled in 
my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then 
Kipho came near to him, and said to him. My 
Lord, how many times; if my brother offend me, 
fihall I forgive him ; until seven times ? Jeshu 

« Ad lit., " The will." 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 155 

said to him^ I say not to thee until 8eTen> but 
until seventy times seven and seven.^ 

XLVI. jftOras of ft^t i?ec0tar ^KSedt ia i^t gKiU 

Therefore is the kingdom of the heavens 
likened to a royal person® who would take the 
account from his servants. And when he began 
to receive, they brought to him one who owed a 
myriad talents. And when he had nothing to 
pay, his lord commanded that they should sell 
(both) himself, his wife, and his children, and att 
that he had, and to pay. And that servant fell 
and worshipped him, saying. My lord, be patient 
of spirit toward me, and all things I (will) pay 
thee. And the lord of that servant had mercy, 
and absolved him, and forgave him his debt. 
Then went forth that servant, and found one of his 
fellows who owed him a hundred pence ; and he 
seized him, strangling, and saying to him. Give me 
what thou owest to me. His fellow-servant fell at 
his feet, beseeching him, and saying. Be patient of 
spirit towards me, and I (will) pay thee. But he 
would not, but went and threw him into the house 
of the chained until he should have rendered him 
what he owed him. When their fellow-servants 

7 Septuagtnta vices septem, et septem vices : vel sephutgieg 
sepHes et sepHes ; id esty quatuoniecim vicibus septuagies,^^- 
Vide Tremellium, in loc, 

^ A man, a king. 



166 THE PREACHING OF 

saw what was done^ they were greatly grieved, and 
went and declared to their lord all that was done. 
Then his lord summoned him and said to him. 
Evil servant ! all that deht did I forgive thee, 
because thou didst entreat me. Oughtest thou 
not to have been as gracious to thy fellow-servant 
as I was gracious unto thee ? And hiB lord was 
indignant, and dehvered him to the tormentors, 
until he should have paid all whatsoever he owed 
to hinu Thus will your heavenly Father deal 
with you unless you forgive each his brother &om 
your heart his trespasses. 

XLVII. M(ftninfi af f^t ffrjSt ffiag in ft^t am«lt 
' after tfyt Jft^mnl at ^t €xa^i. 

And it was that when Jeshu had finished these 
words, he removed firom Ghdilo and came into the 
confines of JehAd beyond Jurdan. And great 
multitudes came after him, and he healed them 
there. And the Pharishee approached him, and 
tempting him, propounded to him whether it was 
lawful for a man to send away his wife for every 
cause. But he answered and said to them. Have 
ye not read that He who created from the begin- 
ning, male and female hath made them ? And he 
said. On this account a man shall leave his father 
and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and 
they two shall be one flesh. "Wherefore they were 
not [constituted] two, but one body. That, there- 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 167 

fore> which G^d hath conjoined, man shall not 
separate. They said to him, "Why then did Mushe 
direct that he should give a writing of dismissal 
and send her away ? He said to them, Mushe, on 
account of the hardness of your heart, permitted 
you to send away your wives ; but from the begin- 
ning it was not so. And I say to you that who- 
soever shall forsake his wife who is not adulterous, 
and take another, committeth adultery ; and who- 
soever taketh the deserted one, committeth adul- 
tery. His disciples say to him. If thus be the 
case between the man and the woman, it is not 
expedient to take a wife. But he said to them. 
Not every man is sufficient for this doctrine, but 
he to whom it is given. For there are some 
eunuchs who from their mother's womb are bom 
so ; and there are some eunuchs who by men are 
made eunuchs ; and there are eunuchs who have 
made themselves eunuchs on account of the king- 
dom of heaven. Whosoever is capable of receiving 
(this), let him receive (it). Then they brought 
to him children, that he should put his hand upon 
them and pray. And his disciples forbad them. 
But Jeshu himself said. Suffer children to come 
unto me and forbid them not, for of those who 
are as these, is the kingdom of heaven. And he 
put his hand upon them, and went thence. 



168 THE PREACHING OF 

XLVIII. C0mmaiuir2(tian at ^ntuniai? atOr l^ia 

iolSi C0mpatii0nji* 

And one came and approached and said to him. 
Good teacher^ what of good shall I do^ that I may 
have the life of eternity ? But he said to him. 
Why dost thou call me good? none is good hut 
one, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep 
the commandments. He said to him. Which? 
Jeshu answered him. Thou shalt not kill, neither 
commit adultery, nor steal, neither shalt thou wit- 
ness false testimony ; and honour thy father and 
thy mother, and love thy neighbour as thyself. 
The young man saith to him. These all have I 
kept from my childhood : how am I deficient ? 
Jeshu saith to him. If thou wilt become perfect, 
go, sell thy possession and give to the poor, and 
there shaU be for thee a treasure in heaven : and 
come after me. But he, the young man, heard 
this word, and went away with sadness, for he 
had great property. But Jeshu said to his disci- 
ples. Amen I say unto you, that it is difficult for 
the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again 
I say to you, that it is easier for a camel to enter 
through the aperture of a needle, than the rich to 
enter into the kingdom of God. But the disci- 
ples when they heard were greatly hurt, saying. 
Who then can be saved? Jeshu beholding them, 
said. With the sons of men it is not possible ; but 
with God every thing is possible. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 169 



XLtX. Movninfi 0f t^t Jftim&l (ft Vttvtf^ ffyt 

Then answered Kipho and said to him. Behold, 
we have abandoned eyery thing, and have come 
after thee : what then shall there be for us 7 
Jeshu saith to them. Amen I say to you, that you 
who have come after me, in the new world, when 
the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his 
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve seats, and shall 
judge the twelve tribes of Isroel. And every man 
who hath relinquished houses, or brethren, or 
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, 
or lands, on account of my name, shalL receive a 
hundred fold, and shaU inherit the life of eternity. 
Many however are first who shall be hat, and the 
last first. 

L. %tiian tax ^KvHoi t^t 9Spa^Ut. 

For the kingdom of heaven is like a man, a 
house-lord, who went forth in the early mom to 
hire labourers for his vinery. And he bargained 
with the labourers for a denarius a day, and sent 
them into his vineground. And he went forth in 
three hours, and saw others who were standing in 
the pubhc place and unemployed. And he said to 
them. Go also ye in the vineground, and what is 
suitable I will give you. Then went they. And 



170 THE PREACHING OE 

he went forth agam in six, and nine hours, and 
did the same. And abont eleven hours he went 
oat, and found others who were standing and 
nnempkyed ; and he said to them. Why are ye 
standing all the day nnen^hyyed? They say to 
him. Because no man hath hired ns. He saith to 
them, Qo also ye into the Tin^ronnd, and what- 
erer is smtahle ye shall receiye. But when it was 
erening, the lord of the Tin^ronnd said to the 
chief of his household. Call the workmen and give 
to them their wages ; and b^;in from the last unto 
the first. And they came who (had wrought) firom 
eleyen hours ; and they received each a denarius. 
But when the first came, they expected to take 
more ; but they also received each a denarius. 
And when they had received, they murmured 
against the house-lord, and said, These last have 
wrought one hour, and thou hast made them equal 
with us, who have borne the burden of the day 
and its heat. But he answered and said to one of 
them. My Mend, I am not unjust towards thee : 
didst thou not bargain with me for a denarius ? 
Take what is thine and go : I will unto these last 
to give as unto thee. Is it not lawM for me that 
whatsoever I am willing, I may do with mine own ? 
Is thine eye evil because I am good? Thus the 
last shall be first, and the first last ; for many are 
the called, but few the chosen. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 171 



LI. Jfnx f^t SriSt I9a9 fn ff^t ff^ Wiz€k after 

^enteofjSt 

Now Jeshu was about to go up to Urishlem, 
and he took his twelve disciples by themselves^ in 
the way^ and said to them^ Behold^ we go up to 
Unshlem, and the Son of man is betrayed to the 
chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall 
condemn him to the death ; and they shall consign 
him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and 
scourge him, and shall crucify him, and on the 
third day he shall arise. Then came to him the 
mother of the sons of Zabdai, she and her sons, 
and worshipped him, and supplicated a certain 
thing of him. But he said to her. What wilt 
thou? She said to him. Declare that these my 
two sons shall sit, one at thy right hand, and one 
at thy left, in thy kingdom. Jeshu answered and 
said. Ye know not what ye ask : are ye able to 
drink the cup of which I am about to drink, or, 
with the baptism with which I am baptized will ye 
be baptized ? They say unto him. We are able ! 
He saith to them. My cup ye shall drink, and with 
the baptism with which I am baptized ye shall be 
baptized : but that ye may sit at my right hand, 
and at my left, is not mine to give, unless to them 
for whom it is prepared by my Father. And when 

^ Between him and themselves. 
Q 2 



172 THE PREACHING OF 

the ten heard it, they were indignant against those 
two brothers. And Jeshu called them, and said 
to them. Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles 
are their lords, and their great ones exercise power 
over them ; but it shall not be so among you ; but 
whoever among you willeth to be great, let him be 
minister to you. And whoever among you willeth 
to be first, let him be to you the servant. So, 
the Son of man came not to be served, but to 
serve, and to give his life the redemption for 
many. » 

Lll. musiijaxi iatf^tm^ invSAnH^ fn t^t IfvOt 

And when Jeshu went forth from Jirichu, a 
great multitude cometh after him. And, behold, 
two blind men were sitting by the side^ of the 
way ; and when they heard that Jeshu was pass- 
ing, they gave voice, saying. Be merciful upon us, 
my Lord, son of David I But the crowds rebuked 
them that they should be silent ; but they lifted 
up their voice the more, saying. Our Lord, be 
merciful upon us, son of David! And Jeshu 
stood and called them, and said. What will ye that 
I should do for you ? They say to him. Our Lord, 
that our eyes may be opened. And he had com- 
passion on them, and touched their eyes, and 
immediately their eyes were opened, and they 
went after him. 

^ By the hand of the way. 



MATHAI THE APQSTLS. 173 



Liii. etintitiir of tfyt j^tttilras of Vtoimvaa. 

And when he drew nigh to Urishlem, and 
had come to Beth-phage^ at the mount of Oliyes, 
Jeshu sent two of his disdples, and said to them. 
Go to this Tillage which is oyer against you, and 
ye shall at once find an ass tied, and her colt with 
her ; loose and hring (them) to me. And if any 
one say aught to you, say to him that it is 
requested for our Lord, and immediately he will 
send them hither. But all this was done that 
there should he fulfilled what was spoken hy the 
prophet, who said. Tell ye the daughter of Tzeyun, 
Behold, thy king cometh to thee, lowly, and riding 
on an ass, and on a colt the foal of an ass. Then 
the disciples went, and did as Jeshu had com- 
manded them ; and hrought the ass, and the colt, 
and laid upon the colt their clothes, and Jeshu 
rode upon him. And many of the crowds spread 
their vestments in the way ; and others cut down 
hranches J&om the trees, and strewed them in the 
way. But the throngs who went before him, and 
came after him, cried out and said, Ushdno to the 
son of David, blessed be He who cometh in the 
name of the Lord, Ush^o in the heights ! And 
when he had entered Urishlem, the whole dty was 
commoved, and said. Who is this 7 But the mul- 
titude answered. This is Jeshu, the prophet who is 
from Natsrath of Galilo. 

ci 3 



174 THE PREACHING OF 

And Jeshu went into the temple of God, and 
cast out all those who sold and hought in the 
temple, and overthrew the tables of the money- 
changers, and the seats of those who sold doves ; 
and said to them. It is written, that my house 
shall the house of prayer be called, but ye have 
made it a den of thieves. And there came to him 
in the temple the blind and the lame, and he 
healed them. But when the chief priests and 
Pharishee saw the wondrous thmgs which he did, 
and the children who were crying in the temple, 
and saying, UshSno to the son of David, they were 
displeased with them, saying to him, Hearest thou 
what these say ? Jeshu saith to them. Yes : have 
ye not read, that from the mouth of children and 
of babes thou hast prepared praise ? 



LIV. %tiian far i^t fttl^ IBa^ in i^fyt tottrt^ 
W&ttk of i^t Jftat 

And he abandoned them, and went forth with- 
out the city to Beth-anio, and lodged there. But 
in the early mom, as he returned to the city, he 
hungered : and he saw a certain fig-tree in the 
way, and came to it, but found nothing thereon 
but leaves only ; and he said, Let there be no fruit 
upon thee again for ever. And immediately that 
fig-tree withered. And the disciples saw, and 
were astonished, saying. How in a moment is the 
fig-tree withered! Jeshu answered and said to 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 175 

them. Amen I say to you, tliat if faith were in 
you, and ye did not hesitate,^ ye should not only 
do (as) to this fig-tree, hut also were ye to say to 
this mountain. Be thou lifted up and fall into the 
sea, it should he done. And whatsoever ye shall 
ask in prayer and shall helieve, ye shall ohtain. 
And when Jeshu came to the temple, the chief 
priests and elders of the people approached him, 
while he taught, saying to him. By what authority 
doest thou these things, and who gave thee this 
authority? Jeshu answered and said to them, I 
will also ask you one word, and if ye will teU me, 
I will also tell you hy what authority I do these 
(things). The haptism of Juchanon, whence is it, 
from heaven or from men? But they thought 
within themselves, saying. If we shall say. From 
heaven, he saith to us. Why did ye not beheve 
him ? And if we shall say. From men, we fear 
from the crowd ; for all have regarded Juchanon 
as a prophet. And they answered, saying to him. 
We know not : Jeshu saith to them, Also I tell 
not you by what authority I do these (things). 

But how doth [it] appear to you? a certain 
man had two sons ; and he came to the elder, and 

^ Were not divided ; that is, in mind. 



176 THE PREACHING OF 

said to him. My son, go to-day work in the vine- 
ground. But he answered and said, I am not 
willing : yet afterwards he relented, and went. 
He came to the other, and said likewise. He 
answered and said, I (will) my lord; yet went 
not. Which of these two did the will of his 
father ? They say to him. The elder. Jeshu saith 
to them. Amen I tell you, the trihute-takers and 
harlots go before you into the kingdom of God. 
For Juchanon came to you in the way of righte- 
ousness ; and ye believed him not. But the 
tribute-takers and harlots believed him: but ye 
neither when ye saw (him, nor) afterwards, re- 
pented that ye might believe him. Hear another 
comparison : A certain man was a house-lord ; and 
he planted a vineyard, and surrounded it with an 
hedge, and dug a wine-press in it, and bmlt in it 
a tower, and had it taken by labourers, and jour- 
neyed. And when the time of fruits drew near, 
he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they 
might send him of the firuits of his vineground. 
And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat 
some, and stoned some, and killed others. And 
again he sent other servants more than the first, 
and they acted towards them likewise : last, he 
sent to them his son, saying. Now will they be 
ashamed from my son. But the husbandmen 
when they saw the son, said among themselves. 
This is the heir ; come, let us kill him, and take 
the inheritance. And they seized and cast him 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. \71 

without the vineground, and killed him. When 
the lord of the vineground, therefore, cometh, what 
will he do to these hushandmen ? They say to 
him. Most miserably will he destroy them, and the 
vineground will he cause to be held by other 
labourers, (even) such as will give him the fruits 
in their seasons. Jeshu saith to them. Have ye 
not read in the scripture, that the stone which 
the builders rejected, this is become the head of 
the comer 1 By the Lord was this done, and it 
is wondrous in our eyes. On this account I tell 
you, that the kingdom of God is taken from you, 
and shall be given to a people who will yield 
fruits. And whosoever shall fall upon this stone 
shall be broken ; but every one upon whom it 
shall fall, it will scatter (him). And when the 
chief priests and Pharishee heard his comparisons, 
they knew that concerning themselves he had 
spoken. And they sought to apprehend him, but 
feared the people, because as a prophet they 
regarded him. 



And Jeshu answered again by comparisons, and 
said. The kingdom of heaven resembles a royal 
person who made a feast to his son ; and he sent 
his servants to caU the invited ones to the feast, 
but they were not willing to come. And again 



178 THB PREACHING OF 

he sent other servants^ and said^ Tell the invited 
ones^ Behold^ my dinner is prepared^ my oxen and 
my fatlings are killed^ and all things are ready, 
come to the feast. But they despised (it) and 
went^ one to his domain, and another to his 
husiness. But the rest took his servants and 
shamefully treated and killed (them). But when 
the king heard, he was wroth ; and sent his forces 
and destroyed those murderers, and burned their 
city. Then said he to his servants. The feast is 
prepared, and those who were invited were not 
worthy. Go therefore into the outlets of the 
highways, and every one whom ye find, call to the 
feast. And those servants went forth into the 
highways, and assembled all whom they found, 
the bad and the good ; and the place of feasting 
was filled with guests.^ And the king entered to 
see the guests,^ and he saw there a man who was 
not dressed in the garments of a festival. And he 
said to him. My friend, how didst thou enter 
here, when thou hast not the vestments of the 
feast ? But he was silent. Then said the king 
unto the servitors. Bind his hands and his feet, 
and cast him forth into the darknesses without : 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For 
many are the called, but few the chosen. 

' Recliners* 



MATfiAI THE APOSTLE. 17^ 



LVIL ^mins at ffyt t^itts SBas in 92Mian 

Then went the Pharishee and took counsel how 
they might ensnare him in discourse. And they 
sent to him their disciples with (certain) of the 
household of Herodes, saying to him. Doctor, we 
know that thou art resolutely true, and (that) the 
way of God in truth thou teachest ; neither carriest 
thou fear for man, for thou acceptest not the per- 
son of men.* Tell us then, how doth it appear to 
thee? is it lawful to give head-money^ unto Eesar 
or not ? But Jeshu knew their malice, and said» 
Why do ye tempt me, ye hypocrites ? Show me 
the denarius of the head-silver. And they pre- 
sented to him a denarius. And Jeshu said to 
them. Whose are this image and inscription? 
They say, Kesar's. He saith to them. Give then 
(the things) of Eesar unto Eesar, and (the things) 
of God unto God. And when they heard, they 
wondered, and left him, and went. 

LViii. %tA^m fax t^t Btats. 

In that (same) day came the Zadukoyee, affirm- 
ing to him, (that) there is no life for the dead. 

* Faces of men, • Head-silver, 



180 THE PREACHING OF 

And they questioned him, saying to him, Doctor, 
Mushe has said to us that if a man die having no 
children, his hrother shall take his wife and raise 
up seed unto his hrother. But there were with 
us seven brethren : the eldest (of whom) took a 
wife, and died. And because he had no children 
he left his wife unto his brother. So also did he 
who was second, and he who was the third, and 
unto the seventh of them. But the last of all the 
woman also is dead. In the resurrection therefore 
of whom from these seven shall she be the wife ? 
for all had taken her. Jeshu answered and said 
to them. Ye do err, because ye understand not the 
scriptures nor the power of God. For in the 
resurrection of the dead, they take not wives, 
neither are wives [united] to husbands ; but as the 
angels of (Jod in heaven are they. But concerning 
the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that 
which has been spoken to you by God, who said, 
I am the God of Abrohom, the God of Ischak, the 
God of Jakub? But God is not [the God] of 
those who are dead, but of those who are alive. 
And when the multitudes heard, they were won- 
der-struck at his doctrine. 



But when the Pharishee heard that he had 
silenced the Zadukoyee, they gathered together. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 181 

And one from them, who was skilful in the law, 
questioned him, tempting him ; Doctor, which 
commandment is greatest in the law ? Jeshu said 
to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from 
all thy heart, and i&om all thy soul, and from all 
thy strength, and from all thy mind. This is the 
commandment, the great and the first. And the 
second is like unto it. That thou shalt love thy 
neighhour as thyself. On these two command- 
ments hang the law and the prophets. 

While the Pharishee were gathered together, 
Jeshu questioned them, and said. What say ye con- 
cerning the Meshicha, — ^whose son [is he]? They 
say to him. Son of David. Saith he to them. And 
how doth David in spirit call him the Lord? 
For he said, that the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
thou at my right hand until I put thine adversaries 
beneath thy feet. If, then, David calleth him the 
Lord, how is he his son ? And no man could give 
to him the answer ; nor did any man dare again 
from that day to question him. 

Then Jeshu discoursed with the multitudes and 
with his disciples, and said to them. Upon the 
chair of Mush6 sit the scribes and the Pharishee. 
Every thing, therefore, which they tell you to 
observe, observe and do ; but after their practices 
do not act ; for they say, and do not. And they 
bind heavy burdens, and lay them on the shoulders 
of men, but they [themselves] with their fingers 
are not willing to touch them. And aU their works 

R 



182 THE PREACHING OF 

they do that they may be seen of men ; for they 
widen their tephillin,^ and lengthen the fringes of 
their waving vestments,' and love the chief reclin- 
ing-places at evening feasts, and the highest seats 
in synagogues, and the shalomo in pubHc places^ 
and to be called of men Mbi.^ But be ye not 
called Rabi : for One is your Master ; but all ye are 
brethren. And call no man Ab^^ to you upon earth : 
for One is your Father, who is in heaven. Neither 
be ye called Medabronee : ^ for One is your Guide, 
— the Meshicha. But he who is great among you, 
let him be your servitor. For whosoever will exalt 
himself shall be humbled ; and whosoever will 
abase himself shall be exalted. 



LX. Jir^t ^txhitt in ffie fi)irlr iJitfbt in m^iiun 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites I 
because ye devour the houses of widows, with the 
pretext of prolonging your prayers, on account of 
which ye shall receive the greater judgment. Woe 
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because 
ye hold the kingdom of heaven closed before the 

® Phylakteries ; called, as above, from the Chaldee tephil/a^ 
''prayer." For their formation and uses, see the com- 
mentators. 

' Martuto ; vestis tremula : from the Chaldee retliathy 
tremuit, 

^ My Master. « Father. » Guides. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 183 

diildren of men ; for ye will not enter in your- 
selves, and them who are entering ye will not per- 
mit to enter. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! because ye go over sea and dry (land) 
to make one proselyte, and when ye have done it 
ye make him doubly more a son of gijiana than 
yourselves. Woe to you, ye blind guides, who 
say. That [to him] who sweareth by the temple, 
it is nothing ; but if he swear by the gold which 
is in the temple, he is liable ! Ye senseless and 
blind ! for which is greater, the gold, or the tem- 
ple that sanctifieth the gold? And (that) who- 
ever sweareth by the altar, it is nothing ; but [if] 
he swear by the oblation which is upon it, he is 
liable. Ye foolish and sightless! for which is 
greater, the oblation, or the altar that sanctifieth 
the oblation ? He therefore who sweareth by the 
altar sweareth by it, and by all things that are 
upon it. And he who sweareth by the temple 
sweareth by it, and by whatever abideth in it. 
And whosoever sweareth by heaven sweareth by 
the throne of God, and by Him who sitteth 
thereon. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypo- 
crites, because ye tithe mint, diU, and cunmiin, 
and omit the more grave [requirements] of the 
law, — justice, benignity, and faithfulness. For 
these ye should have done, and those not omitted. 
Ye blind guides, who strain out gnats and swallow 
camels. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! who cleanse the outside of the cup and 

R 2 



184 THE PREACHING OF 

dish (which) within are fall of rapine and injus- 
tice. Sightless Pharisee ! cleanse first the inside 
of the cup and the dish, that their outside siho 
may he dean. Woe to you, scrihes and Phari- 
sees, hypocrites ! for ye are like whited sepul- 
chres, which without appear heautifal, hut within 
are full of the hones of the dead and all impurity. 
So ye also from without appear to the sons of 
men as righteous, but within ye are fuU of unrigh-^ 
teousness and hypocrisy. 

LXi. ^eartOr ^fttite af tt^t ft^ixts fiiji^t in 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites t 
because ye rebuild the tombs of the prophets and 
beautify the sepulchres of the just ; and say. If we 
had been in the days of our fathers, we would not 
have been with them partakers in the blood of the 
prophets. Thus bearing witness against yourselves, 
that ye are the sons of them who kiUed the pro- 
phets. And you also, — complete the measure of 
your fathers. Serpents, birth of vipers ! how will 
ye escape from the judgment of gihana ? On this 
account, behold, I send to you prophets, and wise 
men, and scribes ; (some) of these ye shall kill and 
crucify; and (some) of these ye shall scourge in 
your synagogues, and persecute them from city to 
city. So that there shall come upon you all the 

^ Also for St, Stej^hei^, 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 185 

blood of the just which hath been shed upon the 
earth ; fi^m the blood of Habil the righteous, 
unto the blood of Zakaria-bar-Barakia, whom ye 
slew between the temple and the altar. Amen I 
say unto you, that all these shall come upon this 
generation. Urishlem, Urishlem ! who killest^ the 
prophets, and stonest* them who are sent unto her, 
what times would I have gathered thy children, as 
gathereth the hen her young ones beneath her 
wings, and ye would not ! Lo, your house is left 
unto you desolate. For I say unto you, That ye 
shall not see me fi^m henceforth, until ye shall 
say. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the 
Lord. 

LXII. mtninQ ot t^t JFiPiStttial at t^t €vti^^. 

And Jeshu went forth from the temple 
to depart : and his disciples approached him, 
showing him the building of the temple. But he 
said to them. See ye not all these ? Amen I say 
to you. There shall not be left here a stone upon 
a stone, which shall not be destroyed. And while 
Jeshu sat upon the mount of Olives, his disciples 
drew near and said between themselves and him, 
TeU us when these things shall be ; and what is 
the sign of thy coming and of the consummation 
of the world. Jeshu answered and said to them. 
Beware that no man cause you to err ; for many 

. 3 Literally, killing. * Literally, atoning. 

R 3 



186 THE PREACHING OF 

will come in my name and will say, I am the 

Meshicha ; and many will be deceived. But it will 

be for you to hear [of] wars and the noise of 

battles ; (yet) see that ye be not perturbed ; for 

all these will take place, but not yet is the end. 

For people will rise against people, and kingdom 

against kingdom ; and there shall be famines, and 

plagues, and earthquakes in various places. But 

these are all the beginning of sorrows. Then 

shall they deliver you to affliction, and shall kill 

you ; and you shall be hated of all peoples on 

account of my name. Then shall many be offend-- 

ed, and shall hate one another, and betray one 

another. And many lying prophets shall stand 

up, and shall delude the multitudes. And because 

of the abounding of iniquity, the love of many will 

languish. But he who shall persevere unto the 

end, — ^he shall live. And this annunciation of the 

kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world 

as a testimony for all nations ; and then will come 

the end. But when ye see the unclean sign of 

desolation which was spoken of by Daniel the 

prophet, that it standeth in the holy place ; — ^he 

who readeth let him understand I — ^then let those 

who are in Jehud escape to the mountain. And 

let not him who is on the roof descend to take 

what [is in] his house ; nor he who is in the field 

turn back to take his vestment. But woe to those 

who are with child, and to those who give suck in 

those dnys ! But pray that your flight may not 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 187 

be in the winter^ nor on the shabath. For then 
shall be the great affliction, such as hath not been 
from the beginning of the world until now, neither 
shall be (again). And unless those days be cut 
short, none could live of all flesh : but on account 
of the chosen those days shall be cut short. Then 
if any one shall say to you, Lo, here is the Meshi- 
cha, or there ; beheve them not. For there shall 
arise false Meshichas and prophets of untruth ; and 
they shall give forth magnificent signs, so as to 
seduce, if possible, the chosen also. If therefore 
they shall say to you, (observe ! I have told you 
before,) Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth ; 
or. Behold, he is in the inner chamber, beheve not. 
As the Hghtning cometh forth from the east, and is 
seen unto the west, so shall be the advent of the 
Son of man. But where the body shall be, there 
will be assembled the eagles. But immediately 
after the affliction of those days, the sun will 
become dark, and the moon show not her hght, 
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the pow- 
ers of heaven be commoved. And then shall be 
seen the standard of the Son of man in heaven, 
and then all the generations of the earth^ shall 
wail, and they shall see the Son of man coming 
upon the clouds of heaven, with great power and 
glory.® And he shall send his angels with the 
great trumpet, and they shall gather the chosen 

* Or, tribes of the land. 

• With power and glory great. 



188 THE PREACHING OF 

who are his from the four winds and from the 
ends of heaven.^ But from the fig-tree learn a 
parahle : As soon as her branches are soft^ and 
they put forth her leaves, ye know that summer 
draweth nigh. So also, when all these are seen, ye 
know that it cometh to the door. Amen I say to 
you, that this race shall not have passed away 
untU all these shall take place. Heaven and earth 
shall pass away ; but my words shall not pass away. 

liXlll. Ee;Stf0n far tf^t Bt^* 

But concerning that day and concerning that 
hour, no man knoweth ; neither the angels of 
heaven, but the Father only. But as the days of 
Ndch, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. 
For as before the deluge they were eating and 
drinking, taking wives and giving to husbands, 
untU the day that Niich went into the ark ; and 
knew not till the deluge came, and carried them all 
away ; so shall be the advent of the Son of man. 
Then two shall be in the field ; one shall be taken, 
and one be left. Two shall be grinding in the 
mill ; one is taken, and one is left. Be wakeful 
therefore, because ye know not in what hour 
cometh your Lord. But this know ; that if the 
master of the house knew in what watch the thief 
would come, he would have been watching, and not 

^ From tlie extremity of the heavens to their extremity. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 189 

have suffered his house to be broken through. 
Wherefore be ye also prepared, because in the 
hour that ye expect not, shall come the Son of 
man. 

LXiv. mi&tian an tfyt ^unlrafi at t^t flrtetftrf. 

Who is the servant faithful and wise whom his 
lord shall appoint over the children of his house, 
to give every one his meat in his time ? Blessed 
is that servant, who, when cometh his lord, shall 
be found doing so. Amen I say to yqu, that he 
will establish him over all that he hath. But if 
that evil servant shall say in his heart. My lord 
withholdeth to cpme ; and shall begin to beat his 
fellow-servants, and shall be eating and drinking 
with drunkards ; th^ lord of that servant shall 
come in a day that he computeth not, and in an 
hour which he doth not know, and shall sunder 
him, and set his Ipt with the hypocrites. There 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

LXV. Cl^Crlr gitxbitt in tt^t ittavi^ ifil^i in 

Then shall be likened the kingdom of hea- 
ven unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, 
^d went forth to meet the bridegroom and the 

^ ^Uo for the [commemoration of] holy woi^exv* 



190 THE PREACHING OP 

bride. But five of them were wise, and five foolish. 
And those foolish (ones) took their lamps, but did 
not take with them the oil : but those were wise 
who took oil in vessels with their lamps. But while 
the bridegroom withheld, they all dozed and slept. 
And in the dividing of the night there was the 
cry. Behold, the bridegroom cometh ; go forth to 
his meeting. Then all the virgins arose, and pre- 
pared their lamps. But those foolish ones said to 
the wise. Give to us from your oil ; for, behold, our 
lamps are gone out. But the wise ones answered 
them, saying, Lest it should not suffice for us and 
for you ; but go to those who seU, and buy for 
you. And while they were gone to buy, the bride- 
groom came, and those who were prepared entered 
with him into the house of festivity,® and the gate 
was shut. At last came also those other virgins, 
saying. Our Lord, our Lord, open to us ! But he 
answered and said to them. Assuredly I teU you, 
I know you not. Be wakeful therefore, for ye 
know not that day nor the hour. 

LXVI. ^utitfaj? 0f t^t 9^itSU. 

For as a man who journeyed called his servants, 
and dehvered to them his property : To one he 
gave five talents, and to another two, and to 
another one, each man according to his faculty ; 
and forthwith went away. But he who had 

^ Beth-chelulo, domtis cfiori, seu domus nuptiarum. 



MATHAI'THE APOSTLE. 191 

received five talents went and traded with them, 
and gained five others. Likewise he who (had 
received) two by trading gained two others. But 
he who had received one went, dug in the earth, 
and hid the money of his lord. After a long time 
the lord of those servants came, and received from 
them the account. Then he drew near who had 
received the five talents, and brought five others, 
and said. My lord, five talents thou gavest me : 
behold, five others I have gained by them. His 
lord said to him. It is well, good and faithful 
servant ; over a httle thou hast been faithful, over 
much I will estabhsh thee : enter into the joy of thy 
lord. And he of the two talents approached, and 
said, My lord, two talents thou gavest me : behold, 
two others I have gained by them. His lord saith 
to him. It is well, servant good and faithful ; over 
a Httle thou hast been faithful, over much will I 
estabhsh thee : enter into the joy of thy lord. But 
he also drew near who had received the one talent, 
and said. My lord, I knew thee, that thou wast 
an hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sowed, 
and gathering together from whence thou hadst 
not dispersed. And I feared, and went and hid 
thy talent in the earth : behold, thou hast thine 
own. His lord answered. Thou evil and slothful 
servant, thou didst know me that I reap where I 
have not sowed, and collect from whence I have 
not dispersed. Did it not behove thee to cast my 
my money upon the table, that when I came I 



192 THE PREACHING OF 

might require mine own with its increase ? Take 
therefore from him th^ talent, and give it unto him 
who hath ten talents* For unto him who hath 
shall he given, and it shall he added to him ; hut 
he who hath not, that also which he hath shall he 
taken from him. And the indolent servant cast 
forth into the darknesses without ; there shall he 
weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

LXVII. Ht^ion iov ft^t €otamtmtixatiicin df i^t 
Stiitf anir fax ft^t iiyft^ IBas al tfyt tanOViutt^, 

When the Son of man cometh in his glory, and 
all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon 
the throne of his glory. And hefore him shall he 
gathered all nations : and he shall separate them 
one from another, as the shepherd separateth the 
sheep from the goats. And he shall cause the 
sheep to stand upon his right hand, and the goats 
on his left. Then shall the King say to them on 
his right hand. Come, hlessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom which was to be for you from 
the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, 
and ye gave me to eat ; I thirsted, and ye made me 
to drink ; I was a stranger, and ye received me ; 
I was naked, and ye covered me ; I was sick, and 
ye cared for me ; and I was in prison, and ye came 
to me. Then shall say unto him those righteous. 
Our Lord ! when did we see that thou wast hun- 
gry and fed thee, or that thou didst thirst, and we 



MATHAI THE APOSTI/E. 193 

gave thee drink? and when did we see thee a 
strcmger^ and received thee^ or naked, and covered 
thee ? and when did we see thee sick, or in prison;, 
\ and came to thee? And the King shall answer 
and say to them. Amen I say to you. Inasmuch as 
ye did it unto one of these my least brethren, unto 
me ye did it. Then shall he say also unto them 
on his left hand. Go from me, accursed, into the 
fire of eternity, which was prepared for the accuser 
and for his angels. For I was hungry, and ye 
gave me not to eat ; and I thirsted, but ye made 
me not to drink ; and I was a stranger, and ye 
received me not; and naked, and ye clothed me 
not ; and I was sick, and in prison, and ye visited 
me not. Then shall they also answer and say. 
Our Lord ! when saw we thee hungry, or thirsty, 
or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and 
did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he answer 
and say to them. Amen I say unto you, that 
inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these little 
ones, ye did it not to me. And these shall go 
away into the torment of eternity, and the just 
into the life of eternity. 

LXVIII. JiftJ fflaji 0f tje MVi^ttxit^. 

And when Jeshu had finished all these dis- 
courses, he said to his disciples. Ye know that 
after two days is the Petzcha,^ and the Son of man 

* Passover. 
S 



194 THE PREACHING OF 

is delivered up to be crucified. Then assembled 
the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of 
the people, in the hall of the chief of the priests, 
who was called Kaiapho. And they held counsel 
concerning Jeshu, how that by artifice they might 
apprehend him and kill him. And they said. Let 
it not be on the festival, lest there be a tumult 
among the people. And when Jeshu was at 
Beth-anio, in the house of Shemun the leper, there 
drew near to him a woman who carried a vase of 
aromatic balsam, great of price, and she poured it 
upon the head of Jeshu as he reclined. But his 
disciples saw and were displeased, and said. For 
what is this destruction? For this could have 
been sold for much, and given to the poor. But 
Jeshu knew, and said to them, "Why grieve ye the 
woman ? a good work hath she wrought upon me. 
For in all time the poor ye have with you, but me 
ye have not in all time with you. For this 
(woman) who hath poured this balsam upon my 
body, as unto my funeral hath done [it]. And 
Amen I say unto you. Wheresoever this my Gospel 
shaU be proclaimed, in all the world, this also 
which she hath done shall be told for her memo- 
rial. Then went one from the twelve, named 
Jihudo S'caryuto, unto the chief priests, and said 
to them. What are ye willing to give me, and I wiU 
deliver him to you? But they settled to him 
thirty of silver. And from then he sought to him 
opportunity to betray him. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 195 



LXIX. jTiftli fflajf in tf^t Smccit af tl^t mn^ttxki. 

But in the first day of the (Phatiree) unleavened 
hread days the disciples came to Jeshu^ and said 
to him. Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee 
to eat the passover? But he said to them. Go 
into the city to a certain man, and say to him. 
Our master saith. My time hath come ! with thee 
will I perform the passover with my disciples. 
And the disciples did as Jeshu had commanded, 
and prepared the passover. And when it was 
evening, he reclined with his twelve disciples. 
And while they were eating, he said. Amen I say 
unto you, that one from you betrayeth me. And 
they were very sad, and began to say to him, one 
by one from them. My Lord, is it I? But he 
answered and said. One who dippeth his hand 
with me in the dish, he shall betray me. And 
the Son of man goeth as it is written concerning 
him ; but woe to him, to that man by whom^ the 
Son of man is betrayed. Better had it been for 
that man if he had not been bom. Then Jihudo 
the traitor answered and said. Am not I he, Rabi ? 
Jeshu repheth to him. Thou hast said ! But while 
they were eating, Jeshu took the bread, and 
blessed, and brake, and gave to his disciples, and 
said. Take, eat, this [is] my body. And he took 

* By whose hand. 

s 2 



1D6 THE PREACHING OF 

the cup, and offered thanks, and gave to them, and 
said. Take, drink of this all of you : this [is] my 
blood of the new covenant, which for multitudes is 
shed for the remission of sins. But I say to you, 
that I will not drink from henceforth of this 
product of the vines, until the day in which I 
shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of 
God. And they sang praises, and went forth unto 
the mount of OHves. 

LXX. iii^t 0f ^t ISreparatCan tax t^t 

Then said Jeshu unto them. Ye all shall be 
offended in me thk night ; for it is written, I will 
strike the shepherd, and scattered shall be the 
sheep of his flock. But after that I am risen I 
am before you in Gralilo. Kipho answered and 
said to him. Though every man should be offended 
in thee, I never will be offended in thee. Jeshu 
saith to him. Amen I say to thee, that in this 
night, before the cock shall crow three times, thou 
wilt deny me. Kipho saith to him. If I am to 
die with thee, I will not deny thee. The same 
also all the disciples said. Then cometh Jeshu 
with them unto the place which is called Gedsi- 
man ; and he said to his disciples. Sit here whUe I 
go and pray. And he took Kipho and the twp 
sons of Zabdai ; and he began to be sorrowful, and 
to be vehemently agonized. And he said to them^ 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 197 

My soul is afflicted unto death : wait for me here, 
and watch with me. And he removed a little, and 
fell upon his face, praying, and saying, My Father, 
if it he possihle, let this cup pass from me ; yet 
not as I will, hut as thou. Then he came to his 
disciples, and found them sleeping ; and he said to 
Kipho, How, could ye not for one hour watch with 
me ? Be watchful and pray, that ye enter not into 
temptation. The spirit is ready, but the body is 
infirm. Again he went the second time, and 
prayed, and said. My Father, if it he not possible 
for this cup to pass, unless I drink it, be done thy 
will ! And he came again, and found them asleep ; 
for their eyes had become heavy. And he left 
them, and went again, and prayed the third time, 
and said the same word. Then he came to the 
disciples, and said to them. Sleep on now, and be 
at rest ; lo, the hour cometh, and the Son of man 
is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let 
us go : behold, he cometh who betrayeth me. And 
while he was speaking, behold, Jihudo the traitor, 
one from the twelve, came, and a great multitude 
with him, with swords and dubs, from the chief 
priests and elders of the people. And Jihudo the 
traitor had given to them a sign, and said. Whom- 
soever I shall kiss, that is he: take him. And 
immediately he approached Jeshu, and said. Peace, 
my master ! and kissed him. But he, Jeshu, said 
to him, [Is it] for that thou hast come, my com- 
panion? Then they came on, and laid their hands 

s 3 



198 THE PREACHING OP 

upon Jeshu, and took him. And^ behold^ one from 
those who were with Jeshu stretched forth his 
hand, and unsheathed a sword, and struck a ser- 
vant of the high priest, and took off his ear. Then 
said Jeshu to him, Return thy sword to his place ; 
for every one of them who take swords, by swords 
shall die. Or thijokest thou that I cannot request 
from my Father, and he shall appoint to me now 
more than twelve legions of angels ? [But] how, 
then, would the scripture be accomplished, that 
thus it ought to be ? In that hour Jeshu said to 
the multitudes. As against a robber are ye come 
out, with swords and with dubs, to seize me? 
Every day with you in the temple I sat and 
taught, and ye did not apprehend me. But this 
was done that what is written in the prophets 
might be fulfilled. Then the disciples all deserted 
him, and fled. And they who apprehended Jeshu 
led him unto Kaiapho, chief of the priests, where 
the jurists and elders were assembled. But She- 
mun Eipho went after him from afar unto the 
court of the chief of the priests, and entered and 
sat within with the attendants, that he might see 
the end. But the chief priests, and the elders, and 
the whole assembly, sought against Jeshu witnesses, 
that they might put him to death ; but they found 
not [any]. And many witnesses of falsehood came. 
But, last, two came near, declaring. This said, I 
can destroy the temple of Gk)d, and in three days 
uebuild it. And the chief of the priests arose, and 



MATfiAI TH£ APOSTL£. 199 

said to him, Dost thou return no word ? What 
are these witnessing against thee ? But Jeshu was 
silent. And the chief of the priests answered and 
said to him, I swear thee, hy God, the Living, that 
thou declare to us whether thou be the Meshicha, 
the Son of God ? Jeshu saith to him. Thou hast 
said : but I say to you. That hereafter ye shall see 
him, the Son of man, sitting at the right hand of 
Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then 
the chief of the priests tore his robes, and said. 
Behold, he hath blasphemed ! what further need 
have we of witnesses ? Behold, now we have heard 
his blasphemy. What will ye? They answered 
saying. He deserves death. Then did they spit in 
his face, and smote him ; and others struck him, 
saying. Prophesy to us, Meshicha ! Who is he that 
smiteth thee ? But Kipho was sitting without, in 
the hall, and a certain female domestic approached 
him, saying to him. Thou also wast with Jeshu 
Natsroio. But he denied before all, and said, I 
know not what thou sayest. And when he had 
gone out into the vestibule, another saw him, and 
said to them. This also was there with Jeshu 
Natsroio. And again he denied with oaths, I 
know not the man. But, after a Httle while, they 
who were standing drew near, and said to Kipho, 
Assuredly thou art of them ; for thy speech also 
makes thee known. Then began he to imprecate 
and to swear, I know not the man ! And in that 
hour the cock crowed. And Kipho remembered 



200 THE PREACHING OF 

the word of Jeshu, who had said to him. That 
before the cock shall crow, three times wilt thou 
have denied me. And he went without, and wept 
bitterly. 

LXXI. MomixiQ of t^e dTrOraj; of t^t Ij^H^iijan. 

But, when it was morning, the chief priests and 
elders of the people took counsel against Jeshu, 
how they should put him to death. And they 
bound him, and kd him away, and deUvered him 
to Pilatos the governor. Then Jihudo the traitor, 
when he saw that Jeshu was condemned, repented 
him, and went hastUy, and returned those thirty 
of silver unto the chief priests and elders, and 
said, I have sinned, for I have betrayed the inno- 
cent blood. But they said to him. To us ? what 
to us ? Thou knowest, — ^thou ! And he cast down 
the silver in the temple, and passed away, and 
went and strangled himself. But the chief priests 
took up the silver, and said. It is not lawful that 
we throw it into the place of offering, because it is 
the price of blood. And they took counsel, and 
bought with it the field of the potter, for the 
burial-place of strangers. Wherefore that field 
has been called The field of blood, until this day. 
Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the 
prophet, who said. And I took the thirty (pieces) 
of silver, the price of him who was precious, whom 
the sons of Isroel bargained for ; and gave them 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 201 

for the field of the potter, as the Lord commanded 
me. But Jeshu himself stood before the governor. 
And the governor questioned him, and said to him. 
Thou art the king of the Jihudoyee ? Jeshu said 
to him. Thou hast said. And while the chief 
priests and elders were accusing him, he returned 
not a word. Then said Pilatos unto him, Hearest 
thou not what they witness against thee ? But he 
gave him no answer, no, not in one word; and 
upon this (Pilate) marvelled greatly. Now at 
every festival the governor was accustomed to 
release one of the bound unto the people, whom- 
soever they would. But there was (then) bound 
a notorious prisoner who was called Bar-aba. And 
when they were assembled, Pilatos said to them. 
Whom will ye that I release unto you. Bar-aba, or 
Jeshu who is called the Meshicha? For Pilatop 
knew that from malice they had delivered him. 
But while the governor sat upon his tribunal, hia 
wife sent to him, saying. Let there be nothing 
between thee and that Just One ; for much have I 
suffered in a dream to-day on his account. But 
the chief priests and elders persuaded the multi- 
tude that he should release to them Bar-aba, that 
they might destroy Jeshu. And the governor 
answered and said to them. Whom wiU ye that I 
shall release to you of these two? Then they 
said. Bar-aba. Pilatos saith to them. And to Jeshu 
who is called the Meshicha, what shall I do with 
bim ? They all said. Let him be crucified. Pilatoa 



202 THE PREACHING OF 

saith to them. Why, what evil hath he done ? But 
they clamoured the more, and said, Let him be 
crucified ! Then Pilatos, when he saw that nothing 
availed, but that the tumult became greater, took 
waters (and) washed his hands before^ the assem- 
bly, and said, I am expiated from the blood of 
this Just One. Ye shall know. And all the people 
answered and said. His blood upon us, and upon 
our children. 

Lxxil. JLtiim fox t^t tl&Crlf ^awc. 

Then he released to them Bar-aba ; and scourged 
Jeshu with thongs, and deUvered him to be cruci- 
fied. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jeshu 
to the Prsetorium, and the whole cohort gathered 
against him. And they stripped him, and invested 
him with a cloak of purple. And they interwove 
€L crown of thorns, and set it upon his head, and a 
cane in his right hand: and they kneeled upon 
their knees before him and mocked him, saying. 
Hail, king of the Jihudoyee ! And they did spit 
in his face, and took the cane, and struck him 
upon his head. And when they had derided him, 
they stripped him of the cloak, and clothed him 
with his own garments, and led him away to be 
crucified. And when they had gone forth, they 
jfound a Eurinean man whose name was Shemun : 

^ In the eye of the assembly. 



MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 203 

this (man) they compel to carry his cross. And 
they came to a place which is called Gogultho, 
which is expounded, the skull. And they gave 
him to drink vinegar mingled with gaU : and he 
tasted, hut was not willing to drink. And when 
they had crucified him, they divided his garments 
by lot ; that what was spoken by the prophet 
might be fulfilled. They parted my garment* 
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast 
lots. And they sat down and watched him there. 
And they placed over his head the occasion of his 
death, in the writing. This (is) Jeshu, the King of 
the Jihudoyee. 

LXIII. Jar i^t iivtb ISnut. 

And they crucified with him two thieves, one 
on his right hand, and one on his left. But they 
who passed by railed against him, moving their 
heads, and saying. Destroyer of the temple, and 
builder of it in three days ! deliver thyself, if thou 
art the Son of God, and come down from the cross. 
Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with 
the scribes and elders and Pharishee, saying, He 
saved others ; himself he cannot save. If he be 
the King of Isroel, let him now descend from the 
cross, that we may see and believe in him. He 
trusted upon God, let Him liberate him now if he 
delighteth in^ him ; for he said, I am the Son of 

God. 

* Willeth hira. 



204 THK PREACHING OF 

Likewise also the robbers who were crucified 
with him, reviled him. 

LXXIV. dFar ft^t nixfi^ ^aw:. 

But from the sixth hour^ there was darkness 
upon all the land until the ninth hour. And 
about the ninth hour Jeshu cried with a high 
voice, God! God! why hast thou forsaken 
me ? ® But certain of them who stood there, when 
they heard, said. This hath cried unto Ilio. And 
forthwith ran one from them, and took a sponge, 
and filled it with vinegar, and set it upon a cane, 
and giveth him to drink. But the rest said. Let 
alone, we will see whether Ilio (will) come to deli- 
ver him. But he, Jeshu, again cried with a high 
voice, and dismissed, his spirit. And at once the 
veil "^ of the temple was rent in twain from above 
to beneath; and the earth was shaken, and the 
rocks were riven. And the house of the buried 
was opened ; and the bodies of many of the saints 
who had been asleep arose, and came forth, and 
after his resurrection went into the holy city, and 
were seen by many. But the centurion and those 
with him, who guarded Jeshu, when they saw the 
commotion and those (portents) which took place, 
feared greatly, and said. Assuredly this was the 
Son of God. (And) many women were there, 

* Six houts, &c. ^ JL ! IL ! lamono shahakih6ni ! 

^ The faces of the gate. 



MATHAI THE APOSTtK. 205 

beholding from afar; those who had come alter 
Jeshu from Galiloj and had ministered unto him« 
One of them was Mariam Magdolitho, and Mariam 
the mother of Jakub and of Josi^ and the mother 
of the sons of Zabdai. 



LXXV. efie ai i^t S^a!bibaX^ at i^t STntiututatOrti. 

But when it was evening, there came a rich 
man from Rometho, whose name was Jaiiseph, 
who himself also was a disciple of Jeshu. This 
went unto Pilatos, and begged the body of Jeshu. 
And Pilatos commanded that the body should be 
given to him. And Jauseph took the body, ftnd 
wound it tound in a cloth of pure linen, and laid 
it in a new house of burial of his own, which was 
hewn out in the rock. And they rolled a great 
stone, and heaved it against the door of the sepul- 
chre, and went. Now there were there Mariam 
MagdoHtho and the other Mariam^ who were sit- 
ting over against the sepulchre. 

LXXVI. M^vninti at tt^t ^aibibat^ 0^ f^t 
9[nnunctattatt. 

But the day which was next after the prepara- 
tion, the chief priests and Pharishee came together 
unto Pilatos, saying to him, Our lord, we remem- 
ber that that impostor said while alive. That after 
three days I will arise. Command therefore that 

t 



206 THE iPttEACHING OF 

they watch the sepulchre till (after) the third o( 
the days ; lest his disciples come^ and steal him 
away hy night, and teU the people that from the 
house of the dead he has risen, and the last delu- 
sion be worse than the first. Filatos saith to 
them. Ye have guards ; go, watch diligently, as ye 
know how. So they went, and set a watch (about) 
the sepulchre, and sealed the stone along with the 
guards. 

LXXVII. ehmini nl rt^t g'ttn^au at tfyt 

From the evening (end) of the sabbath, when 
the first (day) in the week was lightening, Mariam 
Magdalitho and the other Mariam came to see the 
sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earth- 
quake ; for the angel of the Lord descended from 
heaven and drew near, rolled the stone from the 
door, and sat upon it. His aspect was like light- 
ning, and his raiment was white as the snow. 
And with fear of him they who were watching 
were shaken, and became as the dead. But the 
angel answered and said to the women. Fear not 
ye ; for I know that for Jeshu who was crucified 
ye are seeking. He is not here : for He is risen, 
even as he said. Come, see the place in which 
our Lord was laid : and go with speed, and tell 
his disciples that he is risen from the house of the 
dead ; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilo. 



MATHAI THE AFOSTLE. 207 

There shall ye see him. Lo, I have told you. 
And they went quickly from the sepulchre^ with 
fear and with great joy, and ran that they might 
tell his disciples. And, hehold, Jeshu met them^ 
and said to them^ Peace to you ! And they 
approached [him], held him by the feet, and 
adored him. Then said Jeshu to them. Fear not ; 
but go tell my brethren, that I will go into Gralilo, 
and there they shall see me. But while they 
went, there came certain from those guards into 
the city, and told the chief priests every thing that 
had been done. And they assembled with the 
elders, and took counsel ; and they gave money 
not a little to the guards, telling them. Say ye 
that his disciples came (and) stole him away in 
the night, while we slept. And if this be heard 
before the governor, we wiU persuade him, and 
make you without care. But they, when they had 
received the money, did as they had instructed 
them ; and that saying went forth among the Jihu- 
doyee until to-day. But the eleven disciples went 
into Galilo, unto the mountain where Jeshu had 
appointed them. And when they saw him, they 
worshipped him ; but from them some had doubt- 
ed. And Jeshu drew near, and discoursed with 
them, and said to them. There is given unto me 
all power in heaven and in earth. As the Father 
pent me, so also I send you. Go therefore, disci* 
pie all nations, and baptize them in the name (of) 
ihe Father, and (of) the Son, and (of) the Spirit 

T.2 



208 PREACHING OF MATHAI THE APOSTLE. 

of Holiness. And teach them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you. And, behold, 
I am with you aU the days, until the consumma- 
tion of the world. Amen. 

Finished is the Holy Gospel of the Preaching of 
Mathai; which he preached in Hebrew in 
ihfi land of Palestine. 



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*; iu| ^jvj\jij\nrfjvrrirrrrrrr"''''"'rr^""'r~rr*-'*'rr''*r*"*rrr"f ''•'""•'r"'*'-"'*r* '^S T 



THE EPISTLE 



wmcH (was written) 



TO THE EBROYEE. 



T 3 



The Old Testament anticipated the New, and the New 
interpreted the Old. And often have I compared them 
to sisters, who as fellow-handmaids wait upon the same 
Lord. Christ is annomiced by the prophets of the Old 
Testament: Christ is preached by the apostles and 
evangelists of the New. The doctrines of the New 
Testament are not novelties, for the Old had contained 
them before ; nor have those of the Old Testament been 
extinguished, but have been fully opened in the New. 

Chrtsostom. 



THE EPISTLE 

WHICH (was WRITTSN) 

TO THE EBROYEE. 



0ut Harlr. 

I. In manifold portions,^ and in all manners^ 
spake God with our fathers by the prophets from 
the first : but in these last days he hath spoken 
with us by his Son ; whom he constituted the heir 
of every thing, and by whom he made the worlds ; 
who himself is the resplendence of his glory, and 
the image of his being, and upholdeth all (things) 
by the power of his word; and he, in his own 
person, hath made purification of sins, and hath 
sat down at the right hand of the Greatness in the 
high places.^ 

And this (person) was altogether more excellent 

^ B^cull manon, " in all portions." Omnibus partibus^ 
•*. e,, <mn\fariam, mitlHfariam, — Schaff. 
^ In the heights. 



212 THE EPISTLE 

than the angels, by so much as the name he hath 
inherited (is) more excellent than theirs. For 
imto which one from (among) the angels at any 
time said God, Thou art my Son ; I this day have 
begotten thee ? And again, I will be to him the 
Father, and he shall be to me the Son. But again, 
when bringing in the First-begotten into the world, 
he said. Let all the angels of God worship him. 
But concerning the angels, thus hath he spoken : 
Who hath made his angels spirit, and his ministers 
a flaming flre. But concerning the Son he hath 
said. Thy throne, God, [is] for ever and ever, a 
right ^ sceptre (is) the sceptre of thy kingdom. 
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hast hated 
iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed 
thee with the oil of exultation more (abundantly) 
than thy fellows. And again. Thou in the begm- 
ning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and 
the heavens are the work of thy hands. They 
pass away, but thou art enduring ; and aU they as 
vestments shall become old, and as a garment 
thou shalt fold them up : they shall be changed ; 
but thou (shalt be) as Thou Art, and thy years 
shall not fail.* But to which from (among) the 
angels hath he said at any time. Sit at my right 
hand, until I put thine adversaries a footstool 
beneath thy feet? Are not all they spirits of 
ministration, who (are) sent forth in service on 

^ Or, perfect, true, * Or, shall not be complete. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 213 

behalf of those who are hereafter to inherit salva- 
tion ?6 

Therefore we are obligated to be more exceed- 
ingly heedful in what we have heard, that we fall 
not. For if the word which was uttered by 
angels was confirmed, and every one who heard it, 
and transgressed against it, received a just retribu- 
tion,® how shaU we escape if we despise those 
(words) which themselves are our salvation? 
those [namely] which began by our Lord to be 
spoken, and by them who from him heard them 
in UB were confirmed, when God witnessed con- 
cerning them by signs, and by miracles, and by 
various powers, and by distributed gifts^ of the 
Spirit of Holiness, that were bestowed according 
to his will. 

II. Jfixit Sf^tian tin tf^t dTrOrai; af tl^^ 

For not unto the angels hath he put in subjec- 
tion the future world of which we discourse. But, 
as the scripture testifieth and saith, What is man, 
that thou rememberedst him, and the Son of man, 
that thou didst visit him? Thou hast humbled 
him (for) a httle while (lower) than the angels : 
glory and honour hast thou placed upon his head, 
and hast empowered him over the work of thy 

' hives, * A retribution in righteousness, 

' Distributions, or dividings. 



214 THE EPISTLE 

hands^ and all things hast thou put in suhjection 
under his feet. [Now] in this, that he suhjected 
every thing to him, he hath left nothing "which he 
hath not suhjected. Yet hitherto we do not see 
all things suhjected to him. But he who was 
humhled a little while (lower) than the angels, we 
see to he Jeshu himself; (and that) for the sake 
of the passion of his death : and glory and honour 
(are now) put upon his head ; for God himself,^ 
in his grace, for every man hath tasted death ! 

For it was proper to him hy whose hand are all 
things, and on account of whom aU things are, 
(and who) would lead many sons to his glory, 
that the Head of their salvation by sufferings 
should be perfected. For he who sanctified, and 
they who have been sanctified, are all £rom one ; 
wherefore he has not been ashamed to call them 
his brethren. (As) when he saith, I will announce 
thy name unto my brethren, and in the midst of 
the church I will praise thee. And again, I will 
put my confidence in him. And again. Behold 
me, and the sons whom thou hast given me> O 
God! 

® Hu ger Aloho, 



TO THE EBROYEfi. 215 



III. jFor H&e ifflat^a:' at f^t Eorlf. 

Rence as the sons participate in flesh and 
blood, he also likewise was made a partaker of 
these very things ; that by his death he might 
abolish him who held the power of death, who is 
Sotono, and set loose them who in the fear of 
death had been all their hves subjected to servi- 
tude. For not from the angels he took, but from 
the seed of Abraham he took. Therefore it was 
right that in every thing he should be rendered 
like unto his brethren, that he might be compas- 
sionate, and a High Priest faithful in [things per- 
taining] to God, and become an expiation for the 
sins of the people. For in this, that he hath suf- 
fered and been tempted, he is able to help those 
who are tempted. 

Wherefore my holy brethren, who have been 
called with the calling that [is] from heaven, 
contemplate this Apostle and High Priest of our 

^ D^yoUdath Aloho. LiteraUy, for the mother of Ood. The 
comparatively modem phraseology of some of these rubrics 
must not be taken as an argument against the antiquity of the 
Syriac version of the New Testament They are perfectly 
extraneous to the sacred text, and are only retained here to 
show the manner in which the Scriptures are apportioned for 
reading in the Eastern church. The above title — ^the propri- 
ety or impropriety of which the translator does not consider 
it his province to discuss in this place — was not applied to the 
Blessed Virgin till nearly four hundred years after Christ. 



216 T6fi SPlS'TLfi 

confession, Jeshu Meshicha! who was faitbM 
to him who made him, as (was) Mush^ in all hw 
house. For greater is the glory of this (One) hy 
far than (the glory) of Mush^, even as the honour 
of him who huilt the house is far greater than 
[that of] his house [itself]. For every house hy 
some man is huilded ; hut He who huilt all 
[things] is God. And Mush^ as a servant, was 
faithful in all his house, for the testimony of those 
[things] that were to he announced hy him ;^ hut 
the Meshicha as the Son over his [own] house : 
and liis house are we, if, unto the end^ we shall 
hold fast our confidence,^ and the triumph^ of his 
hope. Therefore the Spirit of HolinesB hath said. 
To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your 
hearts unto the angering of him, as (did) they 
who provoked (him), and as the day of tempta- 
tion in the desert, when your fathers tempted me, 
and proved (and) saw my works forty years. On 
which account I was wearied with that generation ; 
and I said. It is a people that doth err (in) their 
heart, and that hath not known my ways. So 
that I sware in my wrath, that they should not 
enter into my rest. 

Beware, therefore, my brethren, lest there be in 
any one among you an evil heart which believeth 
not, and lest ye depart from God, the Living. 
But exhort one another* all the days, until the 

^ By his hand. ^ Retain our openness of faces. 

^ The glorying. * Or, yourselves. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 217 

day which is called that day,^ lest any one of 
you be hardened by the deceptiveness of sin. 

IV. ^ahlKtfy fit ifft CairtfOfate)** 

For we are made participators with^ the Me- 
shicha, if, from the beginning to the end, in this 
very standing, we steadfastly persist. Even as it 
is said, To-day, if ye will hear his Toice,^ harden 
not your hearts to provoke him. For who are 
they who heard and provoked him ? Not all they 
who came out of Metsreen by the hand of Mush^. 
And with whom was he wearied forty years, but 
with them who sinned, and whose bones fell in the 
desert ? And of whom did he swear that they 
should not enter into his rest, but of them who 
would not be persuaded ? And we see that they 
were not able to enter in, because they did not 
believe. 

Let us fear, therefore, lest, while there is a con- 
firmed promise of an entrance into his rest, any 
one shall be found among you remaining from 
entering in. For we have been evangelized as 
well as they : but the word which they heard did 
not profit them, because not contempered with 
faith in them who heard it. But we enter into 
the rest, we (being of) those (who) have believed. 

^ Yauniono, q. s, paumohono, ' 

^ Or, are conjoined with. 

7 Bath'Kolehy "the sound of his voice." 

u 



218 THE EPISTLE 

But as He hath said. So I sware in my wrath, 
that they should not enter into my rest: for, 
hehold, the works of God from the heginning of 
the world were [finished]. Inasmuch as he said 
concerning the shabath, God rested on the seventh 
day from all his works. Yet here again he saith. 
They shall not enter into my rest. Therefore, as 
there was a place into which every one of them 
might have entered, and they to whom it was first 
announced did not enter in, forasmuch as they 
would not be persuaded ; — moreover, (as) another 
day he appointeth, after much time ; as above it 
is written, that David hath said. To-day if his voice 
ye will hear, harden not your hearts ; — ^but if 
Jeshu-bar-Nun could have established them in 
rest,® he [would] not have spoken afterwards of 
another day : — Therefore, yet to enjoy a sabathism^ 
is confirmed to the people of God. For he who 
is entered into his rest hath also reposed himself 
from his works, as God (did) from his. Let us, 
therefore, anxiously endeavour to enter into that 
rest, that we fall not after the manner of those 
who beheved not. For living is the word of God, 
and all-acting, and more penetrating than a two- 
edged sword,^ and entereth to the separation of the 
soul and the spirit, and of the joints, and of the 

® Given them rest. 

* Lemashbothu, Inf. Aphel of shabaihj Quievit ^ cele* 
bravit diem sahbathi. 

* The sword of two mouths. 



i 



TO THE EBROYEE. 219 

marrow^ and the bones, and discerneth the reason- 
ings and counsel of the heart. Neither is there 
any creature that is concealed from before him; 
but every thing (is) naked and manifest before his 
eyes, to whom we give account. 

V. ^ttatds ^tti^itt on tf^t ifiisibt of i^t 

Wherefore having such a great High Priest, 
Jeshu Meshicha, the Son of God, who hath as- 
cended to heaven, let us persevere in the confes- 
sion of him. For we have not an High Priest 
who cannot suffer along with our infirmity, but 
(one) who Chaying been] tempted in every tHng 
as we, (was) separate from sin. Let us therefore 
approach with confidence^ to the throne of his 
grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace 
for help in the time of affliction. For every high 
priest who is from among men,* on the behalf of 
men,* standeth over those things which are of 
God, to ofier oblation and sacrifices for sins : and 
who can humble himself, and sympathize with 
those who know not and evXy since he also himself 
with infirmity is clothed. And on this account 
he is obhgated as on the behalf of the people, so 
(also) for himself, to offier up for sins. Yet no 
man to himself assumeth the honour, but he who 

* With uncovered eye. * The sons of men. 

V 2 



220 THE EPISTLE 

is called by God, as (was) Aharun. Thus also the 
Mesliicha glorified not himself to be a High Priest ; 
but He [invested him with that office] who said to 
him. Thou art my Son, I to-day have begotten 
thee. So, too, in another place he saith. Thou 
art the Priest for ever, after the likeness of Malki- 
Zedek. 

Wlien also with flesh he was clothed, prayer 
and supplication, with a vehement cry, and with 
tears, he ofiered up unto Him who was able from 
death to revive him, and was heard. And though 
he was the Son, yet from the fear and the suffer- 
ings he sustained he learned obedience. And so 
was he perfected, and became unto all them who 
obey him the Cause of eternal salvation ;® and 
was named by God, The High Priest after the 
likeness of Malki-Zedek. But concerning this 
Malki-Zedek himself we have much discourse to 
utter, and [which is] hard to explain, because ye 
are infirm in your hearing. 

VI. ^ecotOr fii^t in ^a^iian W!Sittk. 

For ye ought to be teachers, on account of the 
time [occupied] by you in learning ;^ but now ye 
have need again to be taught those which are the 
first scriptures of the beginning- words of God ; 
and need have ye for miik, and not for solid food, 

* The lives of eternity. ® Doctrine, 



k 



TO THE EBROYEE. 221 

But every one whose food is milk is not learned in 
the doctrine of righteousness, because he is a babe. 
But for the perfect is solid food ; those, (namely,) 
"who, because exercised, have inured their senses to 
^stinguish the good and the evil. Wherefore let 
tis leave the beginning of the word of the Meshi- 
cha, and let us come unto perfection. Not again 
another foundation laying^ for repentance from 
dead works, and for faith which is in God, and 
for the doctrine of ablution,® and of imposition of 
the hand,^ and for the resurrection from the place ^ 
of the dead, and for the judgment which is eter- 
nal.^ If the Lord permit, we will do this. But 
they who once unto baptism have descended,^ and 

' Or, Would ye lay again another ? &c. 

^ Compare chap. ix. 12 ; Exod. xxix. 4 ; Num. viii. 7 ; 
xix. 7. 

® Lev. iv. 4 ; xvi. 21. 

^ House of the dead. Isaiah xxvi. 19; Ezek. xxxvii. 

2 Dan. xii. 2. 

' Honun d'chado xaban Vrndhmudilho nechathu. The 
Greek reads, Tims apcus photisthentasy '' they who have been 
once enlightened." The rendering of the Peschito here har- 
monizes with the emblematical way of speaking of baptism, 
as the mysterion photismatos, ''the sacrament of illumina- 
tiotif^'' that prevailed in the ancient church ; and to which an 
allusion is made so early as the middle of the second century, 
in the Apology of Justin Martyr. (Apol. i. cap. 80.) The 
epithet of " the illuminated " might have been applied to the 
baptized, in primitive days, both because the administration 
of the ordinance betokened a recognition, on the part of the 
church, of a certain measure of divine knowledge in the can- 
didate, as well as that it was in itself a medium through 

u 3 



222 THE EPISTLE 

have tasted the gift which is from heaven, and 
have received the Spirit of Hohness, and have 
tasted the good word of God, and the power of the 
world to come, and who again shall sin, cannot 
again be renewed unto conversion, or afresh cru- 
cify or put to shame the Son of God. For the earth 
that hath drunk the rain which hath come many 
times upon it, and shall have brought forth the herb 
that is useful for them on whose account it is cul- 
tured, receiveth blessing from God : but that which 
shall produce thorns and briers hath reprobation ; 
nor is it far from the curse, but its end is burningi 
But we are persuaded concerning you, my bre- 
thren, those things which are good, and that draw 
nigh unto salvation, though thus we speak. For 
not unrighteous is God, that he should forget your 
works and your charity which ye have manifested 
in his name, who have ministered unto the saints, 
and do minister. But we desire that every one of 
you do show the same diligence for the fuU com- 
pletion of your hope until the end ; and that it be 
not cut off from you,* but that ye be imitators of 

which the believer had the privilege of receiving more of 
the illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit. Still we have no 
evidence that, in the tous pfiotisthentas of the Greek text, there 
was any specific allusion to baptism. In this and the paral- 
lel place, in chap. x. 32, the Greek phrase plainly refers to 
inward and spiritual illumination, — or, as it is expressed in 
the explanatory terms of verse 26 of that chapter, the receiv« 
ing the knowledge of the truth. 

* Tethkatao lecun, [KakiOf abscidii, Ethpaaly absciS" 
ti*s esi,} 



fcf. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 223 

them who by fidelity and patience^ have become 
heirs of the promise. 

For when to Abrohom Grod gave promise, be- 
cause there was no one greater than himself to 
swear by, he sware by his own self; and said. 
Blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I wiU 
multiply thee. And thus he waited patiently, and 
obtained the promise. For men swear by one 
greater than themselves : and of every controversy 
which occurs among them the sure conclusion is 
[effected] by the oath. On this account God, 
willing abundantly to manifest to the heirs of the 
promise that his engagement is changeless, hath 
bound it up by an oath : that by two things that 
are immutable, in which it cannot be that God 
should lie, great consolation should be ours who 
have fled unto him : and that we may retain the 
hope that is promised to us, [and] which we have 
as an anchor that holdeth our soul, that it may 
not be moved, and entereth within the veil, where 
Jeshu hath first entered for us, and become the 
High Priest for ever in the likeness of Malki- 
Zedek. 

VII. jr0r f^t Mtii^cx of 0ur lUrlr, 

For this Malki-Zedek is king of Sholim, the 
priest of God the Most High. And he (it was 

' Prolongedncss of spirit. 



224 THE EPISTLE 

who) met Abrohom when he returned from the 
slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. And to 
him Abrohom separated the tenth from every 
thing which he had with him. Now his name^ 
being expounded, (is,) the King of righteousness ; 
and again, Malek-Sholim, which is King of peace : 
whose father and mother were not written in the 
genealogies ; neither the beginning of his days, 
nor the conclusion of his life ; but in the likeness 
(of that) of THE Son of God standeth his priest- 
hood for ever. 

But see how great this (person) was, (when) 
Abrohom, head of the fathers, gave to him the 
tenths and the choicest things. For they of th^ 
sons of Levi who have received the priesthood, 
have a commandment of the law to receive tenths 
from the people, they from their brethren, them- 
selves from the loins of Abrohom having sprung. 
But he who is not written in their genealogies 
took tithes from Abrohom, and blessed him who 
had received the promise. But, without contro- 
versy, he who is less is blessed by one who is 
greater than himself. And here the sons of men 
who die receive the tithes ; but there [it was] he 
concerning whom the scripture testifieth that he 
liveth. And as one may say, by the hand of 
Abrohom, even Levi, he who taketh tithes, himself 
also is tithed. For he was yet in the loins of his 
father when he met Malki-Zedek. 

If, therefore, perfection were to be through the 



TO THE EBROYEE. 225 

priesthood of tlie Levites, by which the law has 
been put upon the people, why was there another 
Priest required, who should arise in the resem- 
blance of Malki-Zedek ? For he had said. In the 
likeness of Aharun he shall be. But as a change 
hath been made in the priesthood, so is there also 
a change made in the law. For he concerning 
whom these things are said was bom from ano- 
ther tribe, from which no man hath ministered at 
the altar. For it is manifest that from Jihudo 
arose our Lord, from the tribe of whom Mush6 
hath said nothing concerning priesthood. And 
again : it is more fully known by that which 
[God] hath said. In the likeness of Malki-Zedek 
ariseth another Priest ;. who was made not by the 
law of bodily commandments, but in the power 
of a life which is indissoluble. For he testifieth 
concerning him. Thou art a Priest for evermore 
according to the likeness of Malki-Zedek. 

VIII. ^ixts m^yi at i^t CatOrOrateil* 

But the change which was made in the first 
institution was on account of its powerlessness, 
and because profit was not in it. For the law 
perfected nothing : but instead of it a hope has 
entered, which is more excellent, (and) by which 
we are brought nigh unto God. And he hath 
confirmed it unto us with an oath. For they 
were made priests without an oath ; but this [one] 



226 THE EPISTLE 

with an oath : as he said unto him by the hand of 
David, The Lord hath sworn and will not lie, that 
thou art the Priest for ever in the likeness of 
Malki-Zedek. In all this more excellent is this 
covenant of (which) Jeshu is the sponsor. There 
were (moreover) many [high] priests, because they 
were dying, and were not permitted to remain. 
But because this (one) standeth for ever, his 
priesthood passeth not away. And he is able to 
save for eternity them who approach by him unto 
Grod ; for he Hveth through all time, and oflFereth 
up intercessions on their behalf. For such an 
High Priest as this was adequate for us; pure, 
and without evil, and without spot; who was 
separate from sins, and exalted higher than hea^ 
ven. With him there was no necessity daily to 
offer first, like the chief of the priests, sacrifices 
for his own sins, and then on behalf of the people : 
for this he did once when in himself he offered. 
For the law constituted infirm men priests ; but 
the word of the oath, which was subsequent to 
the law, (hath constituted) the Son perfect for 
evermore. 

IX. gax t^e jJatiliitij»« 

Now the chief of all (these considerations is, 
that) we have a High Priest who hath sat down at 

* *' Also at the consecration of a church or altar." 



TO TH£ £BROY££. 227 

tlie right hand of the Majesty in heaven ; and who 
hath become a Minister of the holy place, and of 
the true tabernacle, which God hath framed, and 
not man. And every high priest is appointed to 
offer oblations and victims : hence it was right 
that this one should also have that which he 
might offer. But were he upon the earth, he 
would not be a priest, because there were priests 
who offered oblations as by the law; they, 
(namely,) who minister at^ an emblem and shadow 
of those (things) that are in heaven. As it was 
said unto Mush^ when he buUded the tabernacle. 
See and make every thing according to the pat- 
tern which was showed to thee in the mountain. 
But now a ministry which is better than that hath 
Jeshu Meshicha received, by so much as that 
covenant of which he is the Mediator is better, 
and was given with better promises than that. 
For if the first covenant had been faultless, no 
place had there been for this second. For repre- 
hending them he saith. Behold, the days are com- 
ing, saith the Lord, and I will complete with® the 
family of the house of Isroel, and with the family 
of the house of Jihudo, the new covenant s 
not as was that covenant which I gave to their 
fathers in the day that I took them by their hand, 
and led them from the land of Metsreen ; because 
they did not persevere in my covenant, therefore I 

^ Or, unto ® Upon, 



228 THE EPISTLE 

have .neglected them, saith the Lord. But this fe 
the covenant that I will give to the family of the 
house of Isroel after these days, saith the Lord : 
I will in-give my law in their minds, and upon 
their hearts wiU I inscribe it ; and I wiU be to 
them, even I, God, and they shall be imto me the 
people : and no man shall (have need to) teach 
the son of his city, nor his brother, saying, Know 
the Lord; because all shall know me, from the 
least of them to the eldest of them. And I will 
purify them from their unrighteousness, and their 
sins again will I not remember imto them. In 
that he said. The new, he hath made the former 
old : and that which is antiquated, and hath 
grown old, is nigh unto decay. 

But in the first there were ordinances of minis- 
try, and a worldly® sanctuary. For in the first 
tabernacle that was made there were the candela- 
brum, and the table, and the presence-bread ;^ 
and this was called the holy place. But the inte- 
rior tabernacle, that was within the second veil,^ 
was called the Holy of Holies : in it were the 
incense-vessel^ of gold, and the ark of the cove- 
nant, which was altogether covered with gold ; 
and within it were the golden urn, in which was 
the manna, and the rod of Aharun that budded, 
and the tablets of the covenant : and above this 
the cherubim of the glory overshadowing the 

® Or, secular. ^ Bread of faces. ^ Faces of the gate, 

- The house of perfumes. 



L 



TO TH£ EBROYEE. 22'9 

mercy-seat. But time there is not to speak upon 
every one of these which were thus ordained. 

Now, into the outer sanctuary at all times 
entered the priests, and fulfilled their offices ; hut 
into the tahemacle which was within, once in the 
year, alone, entered the high priest, with that 
blood which he offered for himself and the sins of 
the people. By this the Spirit of Holiness made 
known that the way of the hoHes was not yet 
revealed, so long as^ was the standing of the first 
tabernacle. And this was a figurative representa- 
tion* for the time in which oblations and victims 
have been offered ; — ^those which have not been 
able to perfect the consciousness of him who 
offered them; but (have consisted) in meat and 
drink only, and in various kinds of baptism, being 
institutions of the flesh appointed until the time 
of setting right. 

X. Ci)ttlr ^txUct in i^t fii^t of i^t €vut\&yion. 

But the Meshicha who hath come was a High 
Priest of good things which he wrought out, and 
hath entered into the great and perfect tabernacle 
(which was) not made with hands, nor made from 
these creatures. Nor entered he with the blood 
of goats and calves, but with the blood of himself 
he entered once the holy place, and hath found 

M'hat time. * Parable. 



230 THK EPISTLE 

eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats 
and of calves, and the dust of an heifer, sprinkled 
upon those who were unclean, sanctifieth them for 
the purification of their flesh, how much more yet 
shall the blood of the Meshicha, who, by the Eter- 
nal Spirit, himself hath offered without spot unto 
God, purify our conscience Jfrom dead works, to 
serve the living God ? For this was he made the 
Mediator of the new covenant, that by his death 
he might become the ransom for those who had 
transgressed against the first covenant, (and) that 
they might receive the promise, they, who are 
called unto the inheritance which is eternal. 

xr. TOoatjrtt of ^t mil) I9a» at tt^t Mn^ttriti* 

For where a testament is, there is indicated 
the DEATH of him who made it. For upon death 
only is it confirmed ; because while he who made 
it liveth there is no value in it. Wherefore nei- 
ther the first without blood was confirmed. For 
when every precept had been enjoined by Mush6 
to the whole people according to the law, Mush^ 
took the blood of the heifer, and water, with the 
scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled upon the 
books and upon all the people, and said to them. 
This is the blood of that covenant which is com- 
manded by God. Also upon all the vessels of the 
service from it with blood he sprinkled. Because 
every thing with blood was purified under the 



TO THE EBROYEE. 231 

law ; and without shedding of blood there is no 
remission. 

For it was necessary that these, which are a 
type of the heavenlies, with these (things) should 
be purified; but the heavenhes themselves with 
sacrifices that are more excellent than they. For 
not into the sanctuary made with hands hath the 
Meshicha entered, which is an emblem of the true 
one, but into heaven itself hath he entered, that 
he might appear before the face^ of God for us. 
Nor [was it needful] that he should offer himself 
many times, as did the chief of the priests, enter- 
ing every year into the holy place with blood not 
his own ; otherwise he would have been obligated 
many times to suffer from the beginning of the 
world. But now, in the end of the age, once 
hath he offered his Hfe, that by his sacrifice he 
might abolish sin. And as it is ordained to the 
sons of men, that they must once die, and after 
their death the judgment; so also the Meshicha 
was once offered, and in his own person samficed 
(for) the sins of many ; that the second time 
without sins he may appear^ for the salvation of 
them who expect him. 

' Faces. ® Be appearing. 



X 2 



232 THE EPISTLE 



XII. jfMt ffias in f^t Qtrlr tmtOi aUtt i^t 

Witinxxtttiatu 

For there was in the law the shadow of good 
things to come, not the suhsistence of the very 
things ; therefore (though) every year the same 
sacrifices were offered, they could never perfect 
those who offered them. For if they had per- 
fected, they would have ceased afterward from the 
presentation of them: because the conscience of 
those who had been once purified by them would 
not henceforth have been troubled by (such) sins. 
But in those sacrifices their sins are brought to 
remembrance every year. For it is impossible for 
the blood of bulls and of goats to purify (from) 
sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world 
he saith, Sacrifices and oblations thou hast not 
wiUed, but with a body hast thou clothed me: 
and complete burnt-offerings for sins thou hast 
not required. Then said I, Behold, I come ; in 
the sum^ of the books it is written concerning 
me, that I shall do thy will, God. Above® he 
said. Victims, and oblations, and burnt-offerings 
for sin thou hast not willed; those which are 
offered in the law. And afterwards he said. Be- 
hold, I come, that I may do thy will, Grod. In 
this he hath done away with the first, that he may 

' Or, head. » From above. 




TO THE EBROYEE. 233 

establish the second. For by this wOl we are 
sanctified by the offering of the body of Jeshu 
Meshicha, which was once. 

For every high priest who stood and ministered 
daily^ offered the same sacrifices^ which can never 
purify (from) sins. But this [High Priest] one 
sacrifice hath offered for sins, and hath sat down 
at the right hand of God for ever. Waiting from 
henceforthi until his adversaries are set as a foot- 
stool beneath his feet. For by one offering he 
hath perfected those who are sanctified through 
him for ever. • 

XIII. fiififyt at i^t mt^nu Sit WiKttti. 

Now the witness unto us is the Spirit of Holi- 
ness, when he saith. This is the covenant that I 
will give to them from after those days, saith the 
Lord r I will give my law in their minds, and 
upon their hearts will I inscribe it ; and their ini- 
quity and their sins I will not remember against 
them. But where there is remission of 

6INS, there is not REQUIRED AN OFFERING 
FOR SINS. 

We have, therefore, my brethren, confidence® to 
enter ^ the holy place through the blood of Jeshu ; 
and a way of life^ which he hath now made new 
to us through the veil, which is his flesh ; and we 

' Openness of faces. ^ In the entrance of. ' Lives. 

X 3 



234 THE EPISTLE 

have the great High Priest over the house of GijAi 
Let us, therefore, draw near with a confirmed 
heart, and the fiill security of faith, with our 
hearts sprinkled and cleansed from an evil con- 
science, and our hody washed with pure waters ; 
and let us persevere in the confession of our hope» 
and not swerve ; for faithful is He who hath pro- 
mised us. And let us consider one another^ with 
incitement to charity and good works. And let 
us not forsake^ our congregation, as is the custom 
with some ; hut pray one with another ; (and) so 
much the more as ye see that day to he approach- 
ing. 

XIV. Jfov^^s^mm. 

For if any man shall sin with his wiU after he 
hath received the knowledge of the truth, there is 
not BtUl a victim to be offered for sins ; but a fear- 
ful judgment to come, and burning fire which 
devoureth the adversaries. For if he who trans- 
gressed the law of Mush^, upon the mouth of two 
or three witnesses, without mercy died ; how much 
greater punishment think ye shall he receive who 
hath trampled upon the Son of God, and hath 
counted the blood of the covenant of him by 
which he had been sanctified as that of any man, 
and hath insulted the Spirit of grace ? We know 

^ One in the. other. * Let us not be forsaking. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 235 

bim who hath said. Retribution is mine^ and I 
will repay: and again^ The Lord shall judge his 
people. How terrible^ to fall into the hands of 
the living God ! 

Be mindful, therefore, of the first days, those in 
which ye received baptism ; mi when ye sustained 
a great agony of sufferings, with ignominy and 
affliction ; and when ye were made gazing-stocks, 
and were associated with men who also endured 
these (things). And it afflicted you on account 
of them who were bound ; and the pillage of your 
goods with joy ye sustained, as knowing that ye 
have a possession in heaven, which is better, and 
passeth not away. Destroy not, therefore, the 
confidence which you have, for which there is a 
great reward. But patience is needed by you, 
that ye may do the will of God, and receive the 
promise. Because (yet) a Httle time, and a very 
little, and He who cometh shall come, and not be 
slow. "But the just by the faith of me shall 
Hve ; but if he grow weary, my soul delighteth 
not in him." 



XV. i^Urmtnfl of ti^t ^twn^ Bk^ of i^t Pai$i$ton 

But we are not of the weariness which bringeth 
to perdition, but of the faith which maketh us to 

* Or, that fear, (how) great of falling, &c. 

* Also for the Fathers, 



236 THE EPI8TLE 

possess our soul. Now faith is the persuasion 
concerning things which are in hope^ as if they 
were in reality/ and a revelation of those which 
are not heheld. And for this was the testimony 
concerning the elders. 

For hy faith we perceive that the worlds were 
ordained hy the word of €k>d^ and (how) these 
(things) which are seen were from those which are 
not seen. 

By i^th Hahel offered a sacrifice which was hi 
better unto God than that of Kain ; and because 
of it there is a testimony respecting him that he 
was righteous ; and God gave witness concemmg 
his oblation ; and on account thereof also though 
dead he is spealdng. 

Through faith Chanuk was translated,^ and did 
not taste death ; nor was he found, because God 
had removed him : for before that he would re-> 
move him, there was respecting him the testimony 
that he pleased God. But without faith it is not 
possible for man to please God : for he who draw^ 
eth near unto God must believe that he is, and 
.that of those who seek him he will be the 
rewarder. 

By faith Ntich, when spoken with upon those 
things which had not been seen, feared, and made 
him the ark for the salvation of his family ;® by 
which he condemned the world, and was an heir 
of the righteousness which is by faith. 
"^ In act, 8 Qy^ changed. ^ The sons of his house. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 237 



XVI. CtoaiflDt Dt tfie tt^ixti I9au in Ij^aiiion 

By faith Abrohom, when he was called, heard 
that he was to go forth to a place which he should 
receive for an inheritance ; and he went out, while 
he knew not whither he was going. By faith he 
was a sojourner in the land that was promised to 
him, as in an alien state, and dwelt in tabernacles 
with Ischok and Jakub, sons of the inheritance 
which was his by the promise : for he was expect- 
ing the city which hath foundations, whose builder 
and maker is God. 

By faith Saro, who was barren, received strength 
to conceive seed, and, which (thing) was not in the 
time of her years, gave birth (to a son) ; because 
she was sure that he who had promised to her 
was faithful. Therefore from one who had failed 
from old age, were there begotten multitudes as 
the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the 
shores of the sea, which have no number. In 
faith died these all, not having gotten their pro- 
mise, but from afar had beheld it, and exulted in 
it, and confessed that strangers they were, and 
sojourners in the earth. For they who these 
things say, make it manifest that their city they 
are seeking. But if that city from which they 

^ Also for the Fathers. 



238 THE EPISTLE 

had gone out they desired, they had opportunity 
to return and go to it. But now it is known 
that a better (one) than that they desired ; that 
(namely) which is in heaven. Wherefore Grod 
was not ashamed their God to be called ; for he 
hath prepared for them a city. 

By faith Abrohom offered Ischok in his tempta* 
tion ; and his only-bom he lifted upon the altar^ 
even he whom he had received by the promise: 
for it had been said to him. In Isdiok shall be 
called to thee the seed. For he thought within 
himself, that Grod could"^ even from the dead 
upraise [him] : and on account of this in a simi- 
litude he was given to him. 

By faith in that which was to come, Ischok 
blessed Jakub and Isu. 

By faith, when dying, Jakub blessed each of 
the sons of Jauseph; and worshipped upon the 
head of his staff. 

By faith Jauseph, when dying, was mindful of 
the going forth of the sons of Isroel,^ and com- 
manded concerning his bones. 

XVII. Jfav ti&e SUmj^fyttx of i^t €biX^tn. 

By faith the parents of Mush^ concealed him 
when he had been born three months, because 

* Or, that power was in the hand of God to upraise, 
» The B'naulsroel. 



to THE EBROYEE. 239 

they saw that he was a heautiful child ; and they 
feared not the edict of the king. 

By faith Mush^, when he hecame a man^ re- 
fused to he called the son of the daughter of 
Pherhun ; and chose to himself to he in affliction 
with the people of God, and not for a little time 
to deUght (himself) in sin; and considered the 
riches of the reproach of Meshicha to be far 
greater than the treasures of Metsreen: for he 
contemplated the recompence of the reward. By 
faith he forsook Metsreen, and feared not the 
wrath of the king ; and hoped, as one who beheld 
the invisible God. 

By faith they performed the passover, and the 
sprinkhng of the blood, that he might not come 
near, — ^he, who was destroying the first-bom* 

By faith they traversed the sea of Suph, as 
those who (march) upon dry land ; but the 
Metsroyee were swallowed up therein, when they 
had dared to enter it. 

By faith the ramparts of Jirichu fell down after 
they had been encompassed seven days. 

By faith Rachob the harlot perished not with 
those who would not hearken, because she had 
received the explorers in peace. 

XVIII. fax Qe prnjI&rtjE?, ^^miti, arOr JTatJorrf. 

What shall I yet say? for the time is (too) 
brief for me to tell of Gedhun, and of Borok, and 



240 THt: fiPlSTLE 

of Shemshun, and of Nephtoch, and of David, and 
of Shomuel, and of the rest of the prophets ; they 
who through faith conquered kingdoms, and 
Wrought righteousness, and received promises, and 
shut the mouths of Hons, and quenched the powers 
of fire, and were deHvered from the edge* of the 
sword, and were made strong from infirmities, and 
became valiant in battle, and overthrew the camps 
of the adversaries. And they gave unto women 
their sons from the resurrection of the dead ; and 
others in torments they died, nor hoped to be deli- 
vered, that the better resurrection they might 
have. But others went through mockings and 
scourgings ; others unto chains and imprisonments 
were given up, others were stoned, others divided, 
others died by the edge of the sword, others wan* 
dered about clothed with skins of sheep and of 
goats, and necessitous, afflicted, and driven out. 
Men, of whom the world was not worthy, became 
as wanderers in the desert, and in mountains, and 
in dens, and in caverns of the earth. And these 
all, of whom there hath been (such) a testimony 
concerning their faith, received not the promise : 
because God had before seen for our help, that 
without us they should not be made perfect. 

Wherefore we also, having all these vdtnesses, 
who as clouds encompass us, vrill set ourselves 
loose from every weight, and^ the sin which at all 

* Mouth of the sword. ^ Also. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 241 

time is prepared for us, and with perseverance 
will we run this race^ which is appointed to us. 
And let us look unto Jeshu, who hath become the 
chief and the perfecter of our faith ; who, for the 
joy that was before him, endured the cross, and 
unto shame delivered himself, and at the right 
hand of the throne of God hath sat down. 

XIX. fnx i^tKiani at CalamCtji.^ 

Consider, therefore, how much he endured 
from sinners who were adversaries to themselves, 
that ye weary not, nor fail in your souls. Not 
yet have ye come unto blood in the conflict which 
is against sin. And ye have forgotten the in- 
struction of him who, as unto children, hath said 
to you. My son, contemn not the discipline of the 
Lord, and let not thy soul fail when by him thou 
art corrected : for Mrhom the Lord loveth he chas- 
tiseth, and scourgeth those children in whom he 
taketh pleasure. Endure, therefore, correction, 
because God acteth towards you as with children : 
for who is a son whom his father doth not cor- 
rect ? And if ye be without the correction with 
which every one is corrected, ye are aliens, and 
not children. And if (when) the fathers of the 
flesh have chastised us we have revered them, how 

• Agony. 

^ Literally, When there is wrath. Also, In commemoration 
of Job the righteous. 



242 THE fiPISTLE 

much more are \re bound to be subject to the 
Father® of our Bpirits, that we may live? Foir 
they, during a Httle time, as they willed, chastised 
us ; but God for our advantage, that we might 
partake of his holiness. For all chastisement, in 
its time, is not considered as joy, but as grief; 
but, in the end, the fruit of peace and righteous-* 
ness it giveth unto them who with it have been 
exercised. 



XX. finite <mstian of %tvit. 

Wherefore your relaxed hands and your 
trembling knees make strong ; and right ways 
make for your feet, that the member which is 
lame may not wander, but be healed. Follow 
after peace with every man, and after hoHness^ 
without which man our Lord f eeth not. And be 
aware lest any one be found among you failing of 
the grace of God ; or lest any root of bitternesses 
should put forth the flower and injure you, and 
many be contaminated: or lest there be found 
among you any fornicator, or dissolute, as Isu, 
who for one meal sold his birthright. For ye 
know, also, that afterward he desired to inherit 
the blessing, but was rejected; for place for re- 
pentance he found not, though with tears he 
sought it. 

® Fathers. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 243 

For ye have not drawn nigh to the burning 
fire, and to that which may be touched, neither to 
darknesses, to mist, and to tempest, nor to the 
voice of the trumpet, and the voice of words, 
which they who heard withdrew (from)„ that it 
might not be additionally spoken to them. For 
they could not endure that which was commanded. 
Also if an animal were to approach the mountain, 
it was to be stoned : and so terrible was the sight, 
that Mush6 said, I fear and tremble. But ye have 
come nigh unto the Mount of Tziun, and to the 
city of the living God, to the Urishlem which is 
in heaven, and to the congregation of myriads of 
angels, and to the church of the first-bom (ones) 
who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge 
of all, and to the spirits of the just who are per^ 
fected, and to Jeshu the Mediator of the new 
covenant, and to the sprinkling of his blood, 
which speaketh better things than that of 
Habel. 

Beware, therefore, lest ye be averse from Him 
who hath spoken with you ; for if they escaped 
not who were averse from one who spake with 
them on earth, how much less we, if we withdraw 
from one who hath spoken to us from heaven? 
He whose voice moved the earth ? But now hath 
he promised and said. Yet once [more] I will move 
not only earth, but also heaven. But that which 
he hath said. Once, showeth the (final) changing 
of these which are moved, because they are 

Y 2 



244 THE EPISTLE 

made^ that those may remain which are immu- 
table.9 



XXI. Commomirattan ot f>tliif}inu Wiinsfi.^ 

Therefore because we have received the king- 
dom which is immoveable,^ let us hold the grace 
by which we may serve and please God with reve- 
rence and with fear : for our God is a devouring 
fire. 

Let the love of the brethren continue in you; 
and kindness to strangers forget not ; for by this 
some who were worthy, while not perceiving' it, 
have received angels. Remember those who are 
bound, as if with them ye were bound : be mind- 
ful of those who are afflicted, as men (should) 
who are clothed with flesh. Honourable is mar- 
riage among all, and their bed is undefiled; but 
whoremongers and adulterers God judgeth. Let 
not your mind love money ; but let whatever ye 
have suffice you : for the Lord hath said, I will 
not abandon thee, nor withhold fi'om thee sup- 
port.* And it is ours to say confidently. My 
Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What [can] a' 
man^ do to me ? 

® Not moved. 

^ Also of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers. 

2 Not moved. * Or, feeling it. 

*■ Withhold from thee hands ; that is, help, strength, &c 

^ A son of man. 



TO THE EBROYEE. 245 

Remember your leaders ; those who have spoken 
to you the word of God : reflect on the consum- 
mation of their course^ and imitate their faith. 
Jeshu Meshicha is yesterday, and to-day, and for 
ever. 

XXII. ifiini^ |g0ttr in l^t dfrOras at i^t 

€xmiMyxonJ^ 

Unto strange and variable doctrines be not led 
away ; for it is good that with grace we confirm 
our hearts, and not by meats, because they have 
not been helped who have walked in them. But 
we have an altar of which it is not lawful for them 
to eat who minister in the tabernacle. For those 
animals, whose blood the high priest took into the 
sanctuary for sins, had their flesh burned without 
the camp. On this account Jeshu, that he might 
sanctify his people by his blood, without the city 
suflered. Therefore let us also go forth unto him 
without the camp, being clothed with his igno- 
miny. For we have no city which is permanent 
here ; but one that is to come we are expecting. 
By him,'' therefore, let us oflFer up at all time unto 
God the sacrifices of praise, which are the fruits of 
the lips which give thanks to his name. 

And forget not compassion and communication 
to the poor : for with these sacrifices a man 
pleaseth God. 

Be persuaded by your leaders, and obey them ; 

® Also for the priests. ^ By his hand. 



246 THE EPISTLE TO THE EBROYEB. 

for they watch for your souls as men who must 
render an account of you, that with joy they may 
do this, and not with groans ; for that is not pro- 
fitable for you. 

Pray for us : for we are confident we have a 
good conscience, that in all things we desire to 
act aright. And more especially I ask from you 
to do this, that I may be turned to you quickly. 

But the God of peace, who brought up from 
the house of the dead the great Shepherd of the 
flock, by the blood of the eternal covenant, who ia 
Jeshu Meshicha, our Lord, make you perfect in 
every good work, that ye may do his will, and 
effect in you whatever is good before him, by 
Jeshu Meshicha: to him be glory unto the age 
of ages. Amen. 

Now I request from you, my brethren, that ye 
prolong your minds on the word of exhortation : 
for in a few (words) I have written to you. But 
know that our brother Timotheos is released ; and 
if he come soon, with him I will see you. Salute 
all your leaders, and all the saints, with peace : 
with peace all they of Italia salute you. Grace 
with you all. Amen. 

Finished • the Epistle which to the Ebroyee was 
written from Italia of Rumi, and sent by the 
hand of Timotheos. 

THE END. 



.1 



Preparing for PMication, 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 

HOR^ ARAMAICS : PART IL 



COMPRISINO 



A LITERAL TRANSLATION 



OF THE 



GOSPELS OF ST. MARK, ST. LUKE, AND ST. JOHN, 

FROM THE PESCHITO SYRIAC. 



LONDON : PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUAHB.